Pied Beauty
Introduction
Gerard Manley Hopkins’ “Pied Beauty” praises God for the wonderful variety of colour and shapes that can be found in nature. The speaker believes the world’s beauty is evidence of God’s tremendous power.
This poem uses alliteration and antithesis very effectively so read through the poem and complete the exercises to develop your understanding of these poetic methods.
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;
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.
Researching Language
Poets have to take a creative approach to the language they use in their texts. Unfortunately, readers are not always familiar with those words and this can be a difficult obstacle to overcome.
For example, the word “pied” means to be bicoloured or streaked, but you can probably guess the meaning of “couple-colour”. There are several other words and phrases in the poem that express similar ideas. Search for the following words in the dictionary, such as the online resource dictionary.com, and write down their definitions:
- dappled
- brinded
- freckle
- stipple
Various images of nature reinforce this idea of “pied beauty”, such as the reference to pink-spotted trout and finches, which often have bars with contrasting colours on their feathers. When you are studying literature, it is important that you look up definitions and descriptions, even if you think you already know what those words mean.
Sometimes, it is easier to use an image search to help you understand the writer’s intention. For example, in the first verse, the poet refers to the “plotted and pieced” countryside. Use an image search for “fallow” and “plough” to discover the difference in colour between the two fields.
Finally, read through the poem again and select five more words to research or define.
Alliteration
Alliteration is the repetition of sounds at the start of important words. In the first line of “Pied Beauty”, Hopkins uses alliteration to connect the words “glory” and “God”. In this example, the “g” creates the same sound.
Read through the poem again and create a list of the poet’s use of alliteration.
Suggest reasons why Hopkins is doubling up the sounds in this particular poem.
Antithesis
This device refers to the use of contrasts for dramatic effect. For example, in the second verse, Hopkins mentions the “swift” and “slow” aspects of God’s creation. Swift obviously refers to things that are capable of moving very quickly whereas slow describes things whose movement lacks speed.
Read through the poem and list examples of the poet’s use of antithesis.
Suggest why Hopkins uses this technique so often in “Pied Beauty”.
