The Evangelical Universalist Forum

A poem about ?

Studies Poetry
#1

I’ve got my own interpretation, and it is apropos to the variety on this Forum. In a very good way.

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89). Poems. 1918.

  1. Pied Beauty

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; 5
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: 10
Praise him.

#2

And now I see that Dick already posted this a couple of years ago. Sorry for the repeat; still a gorgeous poem.

#3

It is, it is! And I remember Dick posting it, but it’s lovely to read it again.

Well then, I’m not all that good at symbolism, but at first thought I would say one of the things he’s talking about is the great variation in everything. A sky full blue on a cloudless winter day is a thing of great beauty, but it cannot compare to the beauty of a wild display of cloudy landscapes and battles, waterfalls and temples and wildernesses spread above. Likewise, Father likes His whole creation to display all the varied, original, delightful “dappling” it can – both physically and spiritually.

Am I even in the ballpark? :wink:

Blessings, Cindy

#4

That’s the way I see it :slight_smile:
I love the combination of sensual and pedestrian images - which makes the poem itself ‘pied’.