Pied Beauty

Writer: Gerard Manley Hopkins. He is a priest so is obviously very religious,

Summary: This poem is about Hopkins thanking God for animals who are dappled, spotted and have two or more colours. Also, in the poem there is the idea of humans and nautre working together to create beauty but it was God's hand who created humans and animals so he created the beauty which he is seeing so is expressing his gratitiude to God for making all the beautiful things that we see now in this world.

Form: It is a curtal sonnet. A sonnet is a traditionnel love poem which shows the writer's love for nature and for God. The rhyming scheme is ABCABC DBEDE but it as intended which could portray the different wealths or class of the world which he is trying to link together and express the feelingg that there is room for everyone in the Kingdom of God and God sees all and looks after all, despite the amount of wealth or status. The mysterious rhyming scheme could be linked to how mysterious God is and we dont undersrtand why he oftern does things.

Tone: Thankful for all the beautiful things, especially the unique and mysterious things of this world and addresses the issues of how we see God from a human's persepective, in awe, amazed and in love with nature,

Language and Imagery:

• 'Glory be to God for dappled things' - Usually used in starts of prayers when readign the bible so creates a psalm-like poem effect.The poet is thanking God for 'dappled things' so he is thanking God for variety in out World and a sense of mystery for us humans to discover, He expresses this further with:
• -'For skies of couple-colour as a brindled cow'-'couple-colour' is a compound-adjective and an example of alliteration. The skies can be blue and white and cows can be black and white,
• -'For rose-moles in all stipple upon trout'- He is talking about dappled trout and 'stipple' is an art tecnique which suggests he finds these patterns and variation as a form of art from God, He is addressing a wide range of aspects from trout to cow to sky so from land to sea to sky,
• 'Fresh-firecoal chesnut-falls'-Compound adjective alliteration-The links and plosive alliteration show how nature all fits together and complements each other. It is a surreal image-the dark coal and the light glow of the flame contrasts,
• 'Landscape plotted and pieced-fold, fallow and plough'- 'plotted and pieces' is plosive alliteration and fit together and compliment each other like nature and humans in 'fold, fallow and plough' which is agricultural imagery so the idea of nature and man working together to create beauty but God created humans so it is also by his hand. Sense of tranquillity.

• 'All all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.'-He mentions generic tools 'gear' and actions 'tackle' for various purposes in various jobs. The 'trade' could represent a connection between one's work and job so could be creating a link with passion and joy. Also, when you trade, you trade for something better so evokes a satisified and happy image,
• 'All things counter, original, spare, stranger,'-The word 'counter' could suggest how everything on Earth counters all that is normal, indicating that everything on this Earth is extraordinary. There is a juxtaposition of 'counter, orginal'-refers back to dappled. The poet uses commas to indicate he has no need or impulse to stop as he feels emotionally engulfed in love for Earth,
• '(Who knows how?)' Parenthesis brackets+rhetorical question to show the mystery of the world+ God= contrast between what we can see visually and what we can't see spiritually.
• 'Fathers-forth'-Compound adjective and alliteration which in Christinaity terms, God is portrayed as the trinity, the father, the son and the Holy Spirit so in this sense, he is making a reference to God as a kind father which makes him seem loving and can care for us.
• 'Praise him'- Final affrimation and command- an order to thank him for his greatness. It ends with his name as life ends with God

Links: 'Hunting snake' so both convey the beauty of nature implicating the many wonders and 'Compose upon Westminister Bridge' in the sense of techniques used when describing the views and how they become alive,