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 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.
Gerald Manley Hopkins, 1877
I have always loved this short poem (sonnet?), having personally a strong admiration for variegated plants and dappled horses, among other things. Here is one of my handsome lungworts putting out lush growth in June; the lovely blooms are eclipsed by the freckled leaves, all adazzle and lighting up the shade under the ancient lilacs.
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