Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem "Pied Beauty" is a celebration of the beauty and diversity of creation, specifically focusing on the natural world and the various colors, patterns, and textures that exist within it. The poem is structured as a series of phrases that describe different aspects of the natural world, each beginning with the phrase "Glory be to God for..." This structure serves to emphasize the idea that all of these different elements of nature are gifts from God, and that they are all worthy of our admiration and gratitude.
One of the most striking features of "Pied Beauty" is its language and imagery. Hopkins uses a range of vivid and colorful words and phrases to describe the natural world, such as "dappled," "freckled," "brindled," and "pied." These words help to convey the sense of variety and diversity that exists within nature, and they also add a sense of playfulness and joy to the poem.
Another important aspect of "Pied Beauty" is its focus on the idea of unity and interconnectedness. Hopkins suggests that all of the different elements of the natural world are connected and interdependent, and that they work together to create a sense of beauty and harmony. For example, he writes: "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." This passage suggests that even seemingly opposing or contradictory elements can come together to create something beautiful, and that this is ultimately the work of God.
Overall, "Pied Beauty" is a celebration of the beauty and diversity of the natural world, and a testament to the power of God to bring all things together in harmony. It is a poem that invites us to look at the world around us with wonder and appreciation, and to be grateful for the gifts that God has given us. So, the poem is a perfect example of Hopkins' characteristic style of poetry, which is characterized by its use of vivid imagery, rich language, and deep spiritual themes.
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Hopkins uses great technique here in line 9 by placing these contrasting words together side by side without any connecting word or verb and also with his use of alliteration. The alliteration continues right to line 10 and culminates within the six stressed lines 9: With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim; And the poem involves the imperative conclusion — Praise him. Everything is condensed, distilled, pared back to the bare essentials. All the things in the universe contain the pied beauty. All these also give glory to God. This is the challenge for us when we come to study any poem by Hopkins. The kind that multiplies even while you chew it, feeding anyone within earshot who has a heart full enough to listen.
Pied Beauty by Gerald Manley Hopkins: Summary and Analysis
Rebecca Vincent Art printreb A more comprehensive analysis of the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins is available. The farmland that has never been plowed; the land that is plowed and planted; and the land that is green and or brown. The speaker just wants all the people to praise the lord for his variety of creations. Even my identical twin and I differ in some manner, by genetic mutations or epi-genetic modifications. Blue skies, for example, may display streaks of white or gray or the colors of the sunset or sunrise. God, after all, has none of these attributes.
He believes he may be less lonely because the existing religious creeds do not offer a cure for loneliness. Theme Nature is pied. From the flora, fish, birds, man—all are varied, streaked, freckled. In fact, to give further credence to the idea of compression used here, the poem actually reads like a ten line sonnet! Line five moves the reader out into the countryside, where neat fields fit alongside  copse and woodland, where the feel and color vary. Maybe the message is that variety is the spice of life! The poem is thus a hymn of creation, praising God by praising the created world. In the final five lines, Hopkins goes on to think about more closely the characteristics of those examples he has given, attaching moral qualities now to the concept of variety and variety that he has elaborated so far mostly in terms of physical characteristics.
The poem was written as a hymn that is sung in nature instead of church, Speaker Hopkins is the speaker. Remarkably, the vast majority of the words—23 of 28—are monosyllabic, and the rest have no more than two syllables. This is exactly what Hopkins is about here: he is trying to show us that there are contradictions within things even in words. Next we are given the beautiful patchwork quilt image of the landscape with its pastures, meadows, cornfields and ploughed fields. He may also be pointing out that God is perfect in sharp contrast to all the imperfection seen on earth.
Since this is an abbreviated sonnet, its overall structure is also two-toned. While our existence is particular, one-of-a-kind, His is all-containing—all-of-a-kind, we might say. Not a single thing resembles with the other. Again alliteration is present, as maybe a mini feast of long and short vowels in the fold, fallow, and plow. Take the sky, which may be filled with the loose, textured cloud, or blotchy cloud, or a variation on a topic of brindle, a bit like the hides of cows.
Analyze the poem "Pied Beauty" by Gerard Manley Hopkins.
Hopkins has a different form. All things counter, original, spare, strange; Whatever is fickle, freckled who knows how? The energy is also made possible by the scarcity of verbs and by his use of alliteration. Gerard Manley Hopkins, S. In the fifth and sixth lines the poet is praising the work of man and here also there is an infinite variety in the different types of work performed by man and also a great variety in the implements he uses to carry out his various tasks. Different trades do have the different purpose and different instruments have different tunes. This provides a mild irony in the poem and also surprises the readers.
You can tell because a distinct change in the triadic rhyme scheme occurs between line six and seven: abcabc dbcdc. The kind that, being leavened, sets the soul out to rise: we break it to keep ourselves whole. It expresses the theological position that the good variety within the wildlife may be a testimony to the right unity of God and therefore the infinitude of His creative power. Examine the variety of equipment that workmen use: tools, gear, and accoutrements. Hopkins then mentions the birds with their variety of feathers.
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim; He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: Praise him. The people, who witness the manifestations of the natural world experience lofty, elevated ideas and strong feelings, whether they are the highest mountain or the simplest flower. We are then dramatically ordered by the poet to praise God for these things. There are so many types of landscapes. But the deity that fathered all of these things does not change. Wordsworth underlines the value of nature to a person's intellectual and spiritual growth time and time again. Further Analysis Lines 7 — 11 Pied Beauty may be a kind of hymn, a paean, and therefore the next five lines reinforce this notion of a changeless God divinely creating dappledness, complexity, variety, and flux.
The parallelism of the start and end correspond to a bigger symmetry within the poem: the primary part the shortened octave begins with God then moves to praise his creations. Few folks these days can provide an off-the-cuff description of a European finch, or a newly-fallen chestnut, or a brown trout. The poet praises the variety and beautiful things of the world which are fathered by the god. The vicissitude of his creations and their continuous flux in nature is juxtaposed with the changeless nature of God. Thirty years after Pied The word pied is defined as markings of two or more colors.
Sky does have the couple color, trout are spotted and chestnut does have the multiple color. Hopkins was living in North Wales when he wrote this poem and loved to steer from his house to a close-by church through meadows and fields. Catherine Phillips Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009 , 132-133. For that reason, he uses the rhythm as sprung rhythm. . His curtal sonnet is an exceptional sonnet where he minimizes the traditional form of a sonnet by reducing the eight lines in six and the six lines sestet into four and a half.
