Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889)

Pied Beauty 1877

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; fallen chestnut

Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plow; 5

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: 10

Praise him.