“Pied Beauty” by Gerard Manley Hopkins

My Dearest Friend,

Today I thought to share with you a poem I have long loved: “Pied Beauty” (1877) by Gerard Manley Hopkins.

This beautiful poem helps remind me of the beauty and gift that is Nature, as well as the joy of being part of God’s wonderful creation—strange, fickle, and freckled though I be.

I hope this poem lifts up your day!

With love,

John S.

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.