BACKGROUND OF THE POEM

PIED BEAUTYBy: Gerard Manley Hopkins1

THE POEM

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BACKGROUND OF THE POEM 3

GLORY BE TO GOD

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The heavens declare the glory of God.The earth is the lords, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein.Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his mercy endures forever.5

Praise the Lord;......Praise him for his mighty acts;.....Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. 6

ANALYSIS OF THE POEM7

GLORY BE TO GOD FOR DAPPLED THINGS

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FOR SKIES OF COUPLE-COLOUR AS A BRINDED COWS9

FOR ROSE-MOLES ALL IN STIPPLE UPON TROUT THAT SWIM10

FRESH- FIRECOAL CHESTNUT- FALLS; FINCHES WINGS

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LANDSCAPE PLOTTED AND PIECED-FOLD FALLOW AND PLOUGH

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AND ALL TRADES, THEIR GEAR AND TACKLE AND TRIM

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ALL THINGS COUNTER, ORIGINAL, SPARE, STRANGE;

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WHATEVER IS FICKLE, FRECKLED (WHO KNOWS HOW?)

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WITH SWIFT, SLOW, SWEET, SOUR; ADAZZLE, DIM;SWIFT & SLOWSWEET & SOURDAZZLE & DIM16

HE FATHERS-FORTH WHOSE BEAUTY IS PAST CHANGE;17

Oh, Lord my God ,when I in awesome wonder Consider all the works thy hands have made;I see the stars I hear the mighty thunderThy power throughout the universe displayed

Then sings my Lord, my Saviour God to theeHow great Thou art, How great Thou art

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PRAISE HIM

THEMES OF THE POEM20

NatureHopkins has a poets sharp eye for the intricate details in nature and this poem is rooted in the landscape he knows very well.Full of reference to British flora and fauna.He values all creatures and believes everyone of them is beautiful.Hopkins has a large & vast appreciation of nature.As a painter, Hopkins sees everything with an artistic eye. In this poem, Hopkins epitomises the beauty of different colours which he finds in nature.Hopkins sees nature as pied.He includes all the aspects in a broadest concept; sky, land and sea.The poet brings-out a sense of calmness and tranquillity of nature.21

2) Praising GodHopkins is a priest. Therefore he always praises God for everything.His theory is that everything in this world should be praised, without considering how they look like; everything has a beauty.He wants us to glorify God and all his creations.In the poem Pied Beauty, Hopkins glorifies God for dappled things. He glorifies God even for fickle freckled.Hopkins tells though the creations of God have undergone changes, God is beyond change.Gods attribute of immutability is praised.Thematically, this poem is a simple hymn of praise for dappled things.22

3) DiversityPied Beauty is a hymn of praise to the variety of Gods creation which is contrasted with the unity and non-changing nature of God.Diversity is embodied in the dappled things of nature- piebald clouds, cattle, trout, finches and so on.Diversity in the sense the poet not only talks about big objects as sky, but also talks about small objects as finches.Hopkins celebrates diversity in Gods creation.Hopkins adopts the Catholic view that God is the only unity in the world- everything exists in diversity.23

4) Unity in diversityThere is unity in diversity, in the poets juxtaposition of contrasting elements.

Thus, the solid familiar form of the cow is set against the unbounded, infinite sky, just as the various finite and ever changing forms of creation are set against oneness, infinity and constancy of God.

All the things in nature are united as the creations of God.24

5) Beauty

The poem is a celebration of beauty in all its forms.Whether fickle or freckled; fragile or changeable, all Gods creations have beauty in their own unique ways.According to the poem, everything and everybody is beautiful in its own way.Hopkins sees beauty where others sees flaws. The appreciation of beauty in this Victorian poetry is a reaction to the spread of ugliness under the impact of relentless industrialisation.

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6) Transience According to the poem, the beauty of the earth is on change.Hopkins sees the same patterns of transient beauty in the greatness of a clouded sky or the smallness of finches wings. Though man also has the power of creation, it is not permanent. According to the poet, God is the only being that doesnt change. 26

7) Man and NatureAt a time, when industrial revolution was prompting many writers to lament over the growing gap between man and nature and the consequent destruction of the country side, this poem is a celebration of the oneness between rural man and land. Hopkins portrays man as another organic part of Gods creation.The trades mentioned by the poet bring man into a co-operative and creative relationship with nature as well as Creator.their gear and tackled and trim27

8) Moral and personal aspectThe fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls seems to open-up a moral and personal aspect to the theme of variety.The idea of broken-open chestnuts revealing a shining hidden glory within. It suggests that an unremarkable or flawed exterior can conceal a beautiful divinely inspired soul.This suggestion is picked-up by the ambitious adjectives fickle, freckled, which are commonly used to describe things which were not approved by the Victorian mainstream, like inconstant lovers and flawed complexion. 28

STYLE OF THE POEM29

Curtal Sonnet Pied Beauty is a curtal or shortened sonnets. It differs from the standard Petrarchan sonnet. In the curtal sonnet, the octave becomes a sestet and the sestet becomes a quatrain (four lines), followed by a half-line tail-piece. The progression is from the vast and infinite to the small and particular. The second stanza or quatrain reverses this process, ranging from the particular and varied All things, to the more abstract qualities such as swiftness and slowness, thence to Gods act of creation (He fathers-forth,) and ultimately, to the unchanging nature of God himself.30

SPRUNG RHYTHM Hopkins based his sprung rhythm on the metrical systems of Anglo-Saxon and traditional Welsh poetry. Sprung rhythm is based on the number of stressed syllables in a line and permits any number of unstressed syllables. Each foot consists of a first strongly stressed syllable, which either stands alone or is followed by unstressed syllables. Generally there are between one and four. Eg: Glory | be to | God for | dappled | things,31

DICTION Use of compound/ hyphenated words / Neologism.couple-colourrose-moles Fresh-firecoalchestnut-falls Hopkinss use of compound words is a deliberate borrowing from the Anglo-Saxon and Welsh poetic traditions.Use of unusual synonyms.pied, dappled, couple-colour, freckled

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ALLITERATION

Line 1:....Glory be toGodLine 2:....skies ofcouple-colour as a brindedcowLine 4:....Fresh-firecoalchestnut-falls;finchesLine 5:....Landscapeplotted andpiecedLine 6:....trdes, their gear andtackle andtrimLine 7:....spare,strangeLine 9:....swift,slow;sweet,sour; adazzle,dimLine10:...Hefathers-forthwhose

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PIED BEAUTY

Glory be to God fordappledthings For skies ofcouple-colouras abrindedcow; Forrose-molesall instippleupon trout that swim;Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls;finches wings;Landscape plotted and piecedfold, fallow, and plough; Andall trades, their gear and tackle andtrim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange; Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?) With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;Hefathers-forthwhose beauty is past change: Praise him.

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Rhyme Scheme

The rhyme scheme of Pied Beauty is a-b-c-a-b-c for the sestet, and d-b-c-d-c for the quatrain and tail-piece. Eg :

35things - wingscow plough - howswim trim dim himStrange - change

CONSONANCE

dappledstippletackleficklefreckled36

Old testament biblical hymn/ Psalm writing style.Starts with Glory be to GodEnds with Praise Him

Tone is exuberant & spirited.

The speaker is Hopkins himself.STYLE , TONE & SPEAKER37

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Oxymoronswift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;AnaphoraFor skies ofcouple-colouras abrindedcow; Forrose-molesall instippleupon trout that swim;Other devices39

MetaphorLine 3: rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swimComparison of the spots on a speckled trout to molesLine 4: Fresh-firecoal chestnut-fallsComparison of chestnut kernels to burning coalsLine 10: suckled in a creed outwornComparison ofcreedto a mother nursing her childSimileLines 2: skies of couple-colour as a brinded cowComparison of skies to a cow

METAPHOR, SIMILE & IMAGERY40

Inscape is a concept that Hopkins derived from the medieval philosopher Duns Scotus. Everything in the universe, according to Hopkins, is characterized by a distinctive design that constitutes individual identity. In other words, inscape is those characteristics that give each thing in the world its uniqueness and, differentiating it from other things.

INSCAPE 41

Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)

RHETORICAL QUESTIONAPOSTROPHEPraise him42

Hefathers-forthwhose beauty is past change:

This ending is gently ironic and beautifully surprising: the entire poem has been about variety, and then God's attribute ofimmutabilityis praised in contrast. By juxtaposing God's changelessness with the vicissitude of His creation, His separation from creation is emphasized, as is His vast creativity.IRONY43

A Sunday Afternoon in the ParkPoint Art By:Georges Seurat44

AN OVERVIEW OF THE POEMPIED BEAUTY45

ConclusionEvery good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:17 Nature is the lovely manifestations of God46

BibliographyGods Grandeur, in Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Major Works, edited by Catherine Phillips, Oxford University Press, 1986.Letter to Robert Bridges, February 15, 1879, in Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Major Works, edited by Catherine Phillips, Oxford University Press, 1986.Pied Beauty, in Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Major Works, edited by Catherine Phillips, Oxford University Press, 1986, pp. 13233.Jesuits Worldwide, in Jesuits in Britain, the official website of the British Province of the Society of Jesus,Lowell, Robert, Hopkinss Sanctity, in Gerard Manley Hopkins: A Critical Symposium by the Kenyon Critics, Burns & Oates, 1975, p. 92.Mariani, Paul L., A Commentary on the Complete Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, Cornell University Press, 1970.Milward, Peter, S.J., A Commentary on the Sonnets of G. M. Hopkins, Hokuseido Press, 1969.http://www.jesuit.org.uk/overseas/worldwide.htm (25-05- 2015).47

CONCLUSION

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THANK YOU 49