CLASSIC READINGS: “Pied Beauty” (1877)

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Glory be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: Praise Him.

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) was a Jesuit priest and English poet. Much of his work contains a dual fascination with his faith and the beauty of this world. One such example is his poem “Pied Beauty” (above). Sandwiched between the acclamations “Glory be to God,” and “Praise Him” are reflections upon the tremendous diversity found within the created realm and the beauty which issues from it. The sense of irony is strengthened by Hopkins’ playful meter and rhyme at. Intriguing here is Hopkins’ link between the resonating beauty of Creation and the attribution of Glory and Praise to God. On some level, this begs the question of the relationship between this diverse creation and the God whom Hopkins has couched in language of Unity. This calls to mind C.S. Lewis’ statement in The Four Loves, “The created glory may be expected to give us hints of the uncreated; for the one is derived from the other and in some fashion reflects it.”

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