Gerald Manley Hopkins

Pied Beauty

Glory be to God for dappled things— For skies of couple-color as a brinded cow; For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings; 5 Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plow; 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; 10 He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: Praise him.

DIRECTION: COPY THIS INFORMATION ONTO YOUR WORD FILE. PLACE YOUR HEADER ON YOUR PAPER, SAVE POEM, QUESTIONS, AND ANSWERS ON YOUR STUDENT DRIVE AND WIKI (12TH GRADE-WRITING FOLDER).

Making Meanings Pied Beauty

First Thoughts

1. How would you describe the speaker’s emotional state, and did this poem make you share it?

Shaping Interpretations

2. What specific examples of pied beauty does the poet mention in lines 2–6?

3. What do you think the poet means by saying “all things counter” (line 7)?

4. How does the poet combine alliteration with antithesis (opposites) in line 9?

5. According to the last two lines, why does the poet offer glory and praise to God?

6. In line 10, what contrast does the poet suggest between the beauty of the physical world and the beauty of God the creator?

7. How does the rhythm of the last line make it especially effective?

Extending the Text

8. How is this poem, like Psalm 23 (Collection 5), a “praise song”?