Thursday, January 30, 2014

On Dappling

Gerard Manley Hopkins praised "dappled things" in his famous poem "Pied Beauty."

Glory be to God for dappled things --
   For skies of couple-color as brinded cow;
      For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;
   Landscape plotted and pierced -- fold, fallow, and plough;
      And all trades, 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.

About Him, I am not so sure.

About "pied beauty," I am certain: dappled light turns creek water and stone, algae and leaf, even ice into objects of strange beauty.

Oh dappling: You, I praise.


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