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The Full Text of “Pied Beauty”
1Glory be to God for dappled things –
2 For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
3 For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
4Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
5 Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;
6 And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.
7All things counter, original, spare, strange;
8 Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
9 With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
10He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
11 Praise him.
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“Pied Beauty” Introduction
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"Pied Beauty" is a poem by Victorian poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins. It is a kind of hymn of praise to God that marvels at the varied world that God created. The poem sees God's majesty not just in nature's sheer variety, but also in the labors of humankind and in the abstract categories that people use to understand their experience of the world. The poem was written in 1877 but not published until 1918, and showcases Hopkins's trademark linguistic inventiveness.
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“Pied Beauty” Summary
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Thank you God for creating things that are spotty and varied in color, for skies filled with as many colors as appear in the subtle variations in the coat of a patchy brown cow; for the pinkish dots on a trout's skin as it swims through the water; for hot coals and fallen chestnuts; for birds' wings; for the way the land is broken into patterns as people work on it, partitioning it for sheep to graze, letting it rest to regain fertility, or ploughing it to plant crops; for all different kinds of human work, whatever varied equipment it may use.
Everything that seems contradictory, new, singular, or weird; things that are prone to change, or covered in freckles—who created them? With quickness and slowness, sweet and sour tastes, bright and dull light; God is the father of all these things, though he himself never changes. Praise God.
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“Pied Beauty” Themes
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The Majesty of God
As with a number of poems by Victorian poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, “Pied Beauty” is a kind of song of praise to God. It takes a beautifully detailed look at the world in all its variety, and sees in this variation and abundance the glory of God’s creation. In particular, the poem admires God’s capacity for creating opposites. The poem celebrates God’s work and invites the reader to do the same.
“Pied” means having two or more colours, and it is this quality of variety that the speaker most admires about God’s work. This is primarily expressed through a close look at the natural world, but the poem also sees it in the “trades” of humankind and in more abstract categories. The first stanza, which opens with a prayer to God that praises “dappled things” (another way of saying pied), is mostly about the natural world. The speaker marvels at nature, seeing in it God’s majestic teleological design (which just means that God made the world as it is with intent and purpose). The speaker lists some of these more visual examples of “piedness”: skies of two colors (specifically the appearance of a gathering storm), the spotty pattern on fish, the contrast of chestnuts with their green coating, the coloring on birds’ wings. All of these are part of God’s design and deserving of attention and praise.
But it’s not just the natural world that shows God’s glory—it’s also human activity. Pied beauty can be found in the way that people work the land—think of green turf contrasted with the color of brown soil—as well as within the labors of humanity more generally. Here the poem sees the sheer variety of human work as a type of pied beauty. It’s not possible to say for sure what “gear and tackle and trim” represent, but whether they relate specifically to farm-based labor or more varied “trades” like fishing and cloth-making, they are certainly meant to build this sense of beauty in variety.
Indeed, part of the poem’s aim is to argue that beautiful evidence of God’s design is everywhere—not just in the natural world. The second stanza makes this point with forceful persuasion, by shifting the focus from concrete examples of “pied” beauty to a more abstract list of opposites: “swift” and “slow,” “sweet” and “sour,” light and dark. In other words, it’s not just the obviously beautiful things in the world that showcase God’s majesty—it’s also the world’s limitless variety, the way in which contradictory categories can exist in complete harmony. In this, the speaker sees God’s paternal love for the world (his “fathering-forth”).
Beginning and ending with “glory” and “praise,” “Pied Beauty” is a poem that strives to turn the reader’s attention to the beauty of the world—and to see in that beauty the intelligence and benevolence of the Christian God. All of existence, according to the poem, stands as a testament to God’s capacity for creation; the variety of the world is an often undervalued, but no less powerful, aspect of its beauty.
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Pied Beauty”
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Line 1
Glory be to God for dappled things –
The first line of "Pied Beauty" states the poem's main aim: to praise God, in particular for "dappled things." These "dappled things" are the instances of "pied beauty" to which the title refers. Most of the first stanza is taken up with providing examples of this particular kind of beauty, which essentially describes things that have a pattern of two or more colors (think of a white cow with black spots, for example). These "things" show variety and/or opposites (like black and white).
Hopkins is certainly not the first writer to link "glory" with the idea of "God," but the alliteration (of the /g/ sound) in this moment does signal the poet's virtuosic use of the device to come later in the poem. It also ties glory and God together conceptually—which is, in essence, the point that the poem is trying to prove (i.e. that God's work is glorious). With the poem's premise firmly established, the dash at the end of line 1—which end-stops the line—shows the reader that what will immediately follow is evidence of God's glory, and that specific glory found in "dappled things."
It's also worth noting that the poem's beginning is the same as its ending—a bold statement of God's majesty. This perhaps relates to the way in which pupils trained in the Jesuit school (a subsection of Catholicism of which Hopkins was a member) were instructed to write two mottos praising God at the start and end of every written exercise.
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Lines 2-4
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;
Unlock all 521 words of this analysis of Lines 2-4 of “Pied Beauty,” and get the Line-by-Line Analysis for every poem we cover.
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Lines 5-6
Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim. -
Lines 7-9
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim; -
Lines 10-11
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.
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“Pied Beauty” Symbols
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The Chestnut
The chestnuts in line 4 are compared visually to "fresh-firecoal." The image here relates to coal that might look dark on the outside, but in its interior is glowing red. Chestnuts, similarly, have a greenish, spiky outer coating hides the smooth, brown nut within. This symbol primarily urges the reader to see the majesty of creation in even the smallest of objects. The chestnut—not a traditionally poetic element of nature—contains a kind of magic power within its interior. Additionally, it's possible that through this image the poem is attempting to draw the reader's attention to God's immanence, which is the idea that the divine is manifested in the material world. The chestnut is, in its way, a part of God; that's why it seems to be burning so intensely with the flame of creation. Rather ironically, this humble chestnut may thus represent the immensity of God's power.
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“Pied Beauty” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
Alliteration is a trademark device of Gerard Manley Hopkins, and here appears in almost every line. Altogether, the many varied instances of alliteration add to the beauty of the poem's language—reflecting, on a linguistic level, the "pied beauty" that the poem celebrates thematically.
Even the first word of the first line is alliterative. The hard /g/ sound that links "glory" to "God" is a common association—not one that has been invented here. It speaks to the belief that God made the world, that the world is full of God's majesty, and that God is therefore deserving of praise.
In line 2, alliteration combines with consonance (of /l/ sounds) and assonance (of short /u/ sounds) to create the fresh phrase, "couple-colour." This, essentially, just means "two-colored." But the deliberate deployment of similar sounds means that the word itself feels like it has two colors, one which is based on the alliterative /c/ and the other which is constructed around the /l/ sounds of the second syllables of each word. The phrase also chimes alliteratively with "cow" at the end of the line, which not coincidentally is the image that the poem is using to describe the kind of skies it's talking about.
Later, in line 4, four words out of six begin with an /f/ sound: "fresh," "firecoal," "falls," and "finches." This very subtly evokes the noises people make when handling or blowing on something hot, and also creates a sense of abundant beauty (which, indeed, is one of the poem's main aims).
This /f/ sound continues into the second half of line 5, which also introduces an alliterative /p/ with "plotted," "pieced," and "plough." This /p/ sound is further linked via consonance to "stipple" in line 3, which is a word that describes a visual dot effect; the many instances of this percussive /p/ sound is perhaps an auditory reflection of the visual nature of "stippling." The /p/ and /f/ sounds in line 5 also represent the way in which humans work the land through agriculture, the line itself sounding as if these sounds have been planted there to grow.
Lines 8 and 10 continue with this /f/ sound, with line 10 providing the key phrase "fathers-forth." The /f/ is linked to the idea of a paternalistic God, making all the other instances of /f/ seem like evidence of God's design for the world.
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Allusion
Unlock all 317 words of this analysis of Allusion in “Pied Beauty,” and get the poetic device analyses for every poem we cover.
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Assonance
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Juxtaposition
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Caesura
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Consonance
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End-Stopped Line
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Simile
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Rhetorical Question
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“Pied Beauty” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Dappled
- Couple-colour
- Brinded
- Rose-moles
- Stipple
- Finches
- Plotted and Pieced
- Fold, Fallow, and Plough
- Trádes, Gear, Tackle, and Trim
- Counter
- Fickle
- Fathers-forth
Dappled-
An adjective meaning that something is marked with spots or patches.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Pied Beauty”
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Form
"Pied Beauty" is a sonnet, but a very particular type of sonnet. Along with "Peace" and "Ash Bough," this poem is something called a curtal sonnet—Hopkins's own innovation of the form. "Curtal" means shortened, and these three poems are 3/4 the size of a usual sonnet. Instead of an octave (eight lines) and sestet (six lines), "Pied Beauty" has a sestet followed by a quintet (though Hopkins actually considered the last line here to really be a half-line).
In terms of the relationship between the two stanzas, the poem should be understood as both a hymn of praise to God and an argument of proof. The poem begins and ends with an expression of loyalty to God, but the first stanza deals more with concrete examples of "pied beauty" and the second focuses on making a conclusion based on those examples. The contrast between the two stanzas can, in its way, be interpreted as a kind of "pied beauty" itself. They're very different in content, but they serve the same ultimate purpose: praise of God's majesty.
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Meter
Hopkins is using something in this poem called sprung rhythm, which is meant to sound like natural speech. Like the form of the curtal sonnet, sprung rhythm is also something of Hopkins's own invention.
In essence, sprung rhythm is an irregular form of meter, in which each foot (the basic unit of meter) contains an initial stressed syllable followed by any number of unstressed syllables; in total, each foot usually contains one to four syllables (compared to two, and sometimes three, in a more structured meter like iambic pentameter). The stressed syllables are also often grouped together in sprung rhythm—you'll frequently see a few stresses in a row, creating a burst of energy, a sort of spring in the step of the poem. Hopkins' skillful—virtuosic, even—use of meter makes for a musical and joyful read, and allows for a lot of flexibility (the feet are "pied," maybe).
The first line is the most stately-sounding, which is definitely appropriate for a mention of God. In fact, this could even be scanned as a more traditional iambic line (one with an unstressed-stressed syllable pattern) with a dactyl (stressed-unstressed-unstressed) in the first foot:
Glory be | to God | for dapp- | led things –
What's more important here than a specific scanning is the actual sound and feel of the line. Beginning on the stressed syllable of "glory" opens the poem emphatically, with a clear call to the reader to listen up and do what the speaker says.
But line four, for example, is completely different. Though there is no definitive way to scan all of the lines in "Pied Beauty," line four can be read as having three stresses within the first four syllables alone:
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Again, the frequent grouping of stresses creates a sense of enthusiasm and energy as the speaker details the glory of God's creation. Later, in line 9, the intensity of the stresses—combined with heavy alliteration—underscores the equal beauty of the qualities being listed:
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
The point of this poetic music is to honor the idea of God's majestic creation, expressing joy, wonder, and enthusiasm through the patterning of sound. Indeed, Hopkins is so committed to meter as a form of expression that he places his own stresses on words to instruct readers on where the stresses ought to fall (e.g. line 6).
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Rhyme Scheme
"Pied Beauty" is a meticulously and methodically rhymed poem, in keeping with its take on the sonnet form. However, because this is a "curtal" (shortened) sonnet, the rhyme scheme deviates from the traditional pattern—and this is closest to the Petrarchan sonnet—and reads:
ABCABC DBCDC
All of the rhymes in "Pied Beauty" are full and clear—perfect rhymes—making the poem sound purposeful and forceful in its organization. This, of course, is the exact claim the poem is making about God and the world. In other words, the careful organization of the rhymes speaks to God's divine will—his intelligent design of the universe.
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“Pied Beauty” Speaker
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The speaker in "Pied Beauty" is unspecified and given no gender, but most critics tend to equate the speaker with Hopkins himself. Hopkins was a devout Christian and the poem is a surefooted and joyful expression of belief in God and God's creation. The speaker seeks to praise God and addresses god at both the beginning and end of the poem. Essentially, the speaker is making an argument to the reader, advocating for both God's existence and his teleological (intelligent) design for the universe. The speaker is saying, "look around and behold the majesty of God's work."
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“Pied Beauty” Setting
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"Pied Beauty" doesn't have an explicit setting, and this creates a sense that the poem could be happening anywhere. This, in turn, supports the poem's praise of God's majesty: God created all things, so this poem in praise of that creation takes place everywhere.
If you want to get more specific, the speaker does list specific examples of nature's "pied beauty" as proof of God's majesty. This suggests that the setting is, broadly, the Earth. Lines 5 and 6 introduce people into the scene by mentioning agriculture and human labor. The poem thus doesn't just reference the natural world, but also people's place within it. Overall, the vague yet expansive setting is part of the poem's demonstration of the range of God's majesty.
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Literary and Historical Context of “Pied Beauty”
Literary Context
Though Hopkins is considered one of the Victorian poets (poets writing during the reign of Queen Victory during the second half of the 19th century), his singular sound and style set him apart from his contemporaries. Hopkins's poetry intersects two main traditions: religious poetry and nature poetry. On the religious side, Hopkins has early precursors in George Herbert and John Donne (see Donne's poems: "The Flea," "The Sun Rising"). With nature, Hopkins follows on—but in his own way—from the late-18th/early-19th century Romantic poets who questioned the industrial revolution's effects on both nature and humankind's relationship to nature (see: William Wordsworth's "Composed upon Westminster Bridge" and William Blake's "London").
The Victorian era has its literary stars, of course—writers like Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, and Lord Alfred Tennyson. But Hopkins barely found publication in his lifetime, let alone literary success. Literature owes a debt of gratitude to Hopkins' friend, poet Robert Bridges, for the survival of his poetry. Though Bridges didn't see eye-to-eye with Hopkins on all of his poetic practices, he sensed the value of Hopkins' poetry and was determined to preserve his friend's small collection of poems for posterity.
Historical Context
Gerard Manley Hopkins was a British poet active during the Victorian era. The Victorian era was characterized by the rapid and wide extension of the British Empire, technological advances, and the birth and spread of a variety of social movements. This was also the time of the Second Industrial Revolution, which fundamentally restructured society around capital, commerce, and manufactured goods.
Another important aspect of Hopkins's historical context is his religion. Hopkins was a Jesuit priest, taking vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. His belief in the immanence of God—the idea that God is manifested in the material world—is key to understanding his poetry. In essence, his poems argue that the world itself provides abundant evidence of God's intelligence and majesty.
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More “Pied Beauty” Resources
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External Resources
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How Hopkins Was Ahead of His Time — An interesting article about Hopkins in the British magazine the New Statesman.
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An Actor's Reading — A reading of the poem by actor Michael Graves.
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More Poems by Hopkins — Some of Hopkins's other significant works.
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The Letters of Gerard Manley Hopkins — A collection of Hopkins's correspondence.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins
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