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Pied Beauty

Hopkins, Gerard Manley (1844 - 1889)

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 & pieced -- fold, fallow, & plough;
6     And áll trades, their gear & tackle & trim.
7        All things counter, original, spáre, strange;
8  Whatever is fickle, frecklèd, (who knows how?)
9     With swíft, slów; sweet, sóur; adázzle, dím;
10        He fathers-forth whose beauty is pást change:
11     Práise hím.
Poem Info
Original Text: 
The Later Poetic Manuscripts of Gerard Manley Hopkins in Facsimile, ed. Norman H. MacKenzie (New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1991): 127. PR 4803 H44A6 1991 Robarts Library
Publication Start Year: 
1918
RPO poem Editors: 
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition: 
RPO 1996-2000.
Rhyme: 
abcabcdbede