Pied Beauty by Gerard Manley Hopkins Analysis

Pied Beauty by 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 all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;

Whatever is fickle, freckled (who know how?)

With swift, slow; sweet, sour; addazle, dim;

He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: Praise Him

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Pied Beauty by Hopkins is a poem of praise to God for his creations. The title already foreshadows the content in "Pied Beauty" which could alleviate to two-tone beauty, both ends of the spectrum. This idea is reinforced by the constant contrasts between normal expected aesthetic beauty and its contrasts of dull, unaesthetic images. This juxtaposition of beauty and what we consider to be expands upon the amazing natural beauty of our surroundings and in turn of God's creations.

The natural beauty in this poem is described as beautiful purely because of its rich diversity. "Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls" firstly convey an aesthetic beauty but upon closer inspection convey a more complex image; a chestnut is hard on the outside, concealing its meaty interior similarly to a hot coal which is black or grey on the outside, concealing the hot, fiery core. Both of these indicate the contrasts persistent of the "Pied Beauty".

"With swift, slow; sweet, sour; addazle, dim;" reinforce the idea of the beauty of contrasts, opposties as each word is an antonym. The sibilance of the s displays the softness of the tone. Nature is presented as contrasting imperfections, beautiful in its diversity.