My Little Poem: Beauty

"Pied Beauty" by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Hello, Poetry Friend

Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem "Pied Beauty" is special to me because I included it in my first book, The Joy of Poetry. Specifically, it's in the chapter titled "Come, Night: old poetry," which includes a scene from the day before my mom died.

But although I loved this poem, I was intimidated to memorize it. It's Hopkins! Honestly, I think Shakespeare's easier.

But on the day I started learning it by heart I also read a poem about the common grackle in Bright Wings, an illustrated anthology of poems about birds edited by Billy Collins, with paintings by David Allen Sibley. There are many common grackles in Waco, Texas, where I used to live. I would have described them as black. But Cornell's Lab of Ornithology says they are dappled, with "glossy-iridescent bodies." In good light, they sparkle. They also swarm, eat garbage, and bathe themselves in ants. I do not like them, Sam I am. Yet, they are a lot like the speckled things described in this poem — "brinded" cows,  trout "all in stipple." Hopkins might describe the grackles as "freckled" with rainbows.

My life is "sweet." My life is "sour." I wish the "swift" things would let up and the "slow" things would speed up. My nights are "adazzle;" my days, too often "dim." Some days I begin as Cinderella in ashes and end as Cinderella at the ball. Some days I am the stepsisters through and through.

I discussed Cinderella with my original poetry buddy, Nancy Franson, with whom I did my original poetry dare—all of which is in the The Joy of Poetry. The following is an excerpt:

Nancy and I were discussing the latest movie version of Cinderella on Facebook, and she had an explanation for the wicked stepmother and what she called "her appaling daughers." Nancy wrote, "They probably never had any poetry in their lives."

No, probably not. Imagine how much nicer things might have been for Cinderella if she and her stepsisters had gathered every morning over porridge to read a poem together. They might not have been so bothered about Prince Charming and his silly ball"

If the stepsisters had been lucky enough to stumble upon this "Pied Beauty," they would have had all the dancing their tootsies could desire. Because this poem moves like a waltz, around and around for three stanzas: 1-2-3, 1-2-3-, 1-2-3. Then, in the last line, it jumps.

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.

–Gerard Manley Hopkins

Look at it the line spacing: 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, and then a 1 and a huge indentation before the final line. We are swooped up and twirled over lines 2 and 3, over the not-yet-glimpsed 4 ... all the way to 5.

We land oh-so-lightly: "Praise him."

Poetry Journal

• Read Hopkins’ poem about beauty.

• Jot down what you notice, what you like, what you don’t, what questions you have, and at least one way in which the poem speaks to you.

• Read the poem again, aloud (if you didn’t the first time). Is there anything you notice this time that you want to add to your journal?

• Write your own poem about something beautiful that may not seem lovely to everyone else. Mine is at meganwillome.com. If you like, email me what you write.

Happy poeming!

Megan