Pied Beauty

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Gerard Manley Hopkins was a Jesuit priest ordained in 1877 aged

33. His religious vocation was a frequent source of inspiration and
wonder in his poetry, and Pied Beauty is a paeon of praise to God that
is rooted in Christian tradition. As well as being a cleric, Hopkins was
also a highly innovative poet, and experiments with two important
novel techniques within Pied Beauty to emphasise a rustic, natural
theme and a mathematical certainty in the universe.

The first unusual technique that Hopkins uses is the form of the
poem. A curtal sonnet is a curtailed form of the classic renaissance
Petrarchan sonnet, which has been shortened proportionally from 14
lines to ten, with a sextet and quatrain replacing the standard octave
and sextet. The proportional reduction and mathematical patterns
within the sonnet were very important to Hopkins, and display his
faith in the certainty of Gods power in the universe. Gods power is
also subtly emphasised in the unusual rhyme scheme though, with
ABCABC DBCDC departing from the convention of the sonnet. Here,
Hopkins break in the rhyme scheme serves to subconsciously ponder
the mystery of God and His mysterious nature. The certainty of the
poetic form representing the certainty of Gods power plays with the
surprising change in rhythm that highlights the mystery of God.

The language of the poem, beginning with the standard Catholic

phrase Glory be to God contrasts with the unusual examples that
Hopkins has chosen to illustrate the power of God not vast
mountains or mighty rivers but small, dainty intricate details, such as
couple-coloured sky like a vibrant sunset, the rose-mole speckles on
the back of a trout, the tiny wings of a finch or indeed the seemingly
manmade patchwork landscape of farmers field. Hopkins creates a
picture of a stereotypical English rural scene with great natural
beauty.

To complement Hopkins rural, agrarian imagery in the first

stanza, he employs another unusual technique that he personally
developed. Sprung rhythm, whereby the metre comprises a set series
of stressed syllables followed by an varied number that are
unstressed. Unusual in modern poetry, it has its origins in English
folksongs, and is designed to mimic the flow of natural speech. The
subconscious link to English folksongs and poetry emphasises some
of the imagery that Hopkins develops, of simple rural life that is
infused with natural beauty, a beauty that can come only from God.

Hopkins poetic form is unique in many ways his use of form,

rhyme and rhythm stands apart from any other poet. His form and
matter though is heavily influenced by Christian scripture and
teaching though. The most obvious is Ephesians 3.20: Now all glory
to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to
accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. The power of
God to create anything is developed further in the quatrain. All things
counter, original, spare, strange supports this verse and the unusual
change in the rhyme: the power of God is ultimately mysterious and
something we cannot really understand - as the poet ponders, why
knows how? St Augustine also writes a sermon that is very similar in
content to this poem that reflects on the nature of God through the
beauty of nature, and how nature helps us understand the power of
God.

A final technique used in Pied Beauty is Hopkins use of lists. He

repeatedly uses lists throughout the poem which creates a long,
continuous effect that makes him seem carried away by enthusiasm,
as if he is lost in contemplation of God and continually motivated to
think of more and more examples to demonstrate his point. Lists
comprise the majority of both stanzas, concluding with a line that
again show the range of Gods creation swift, slow; sweet, sour;
adazzle, dim descriptions that are diametrically opposed to each
other yet running throughout creation. The reference to fathers-forth
in the final line also adds a element of timelessness to the nature of
God even though God (the father) was before all things, His
appearance, and the beauty of His creation, never changes.

The poem concludes, as it begins, with a line that could have

been transcribed from a vast array of Christian prayers, and like the
opening Glory be to God, Praise Him is in its simplicity a stark
contrast to the complexity of the poem, just as God is paradoxically at
once impossible for humans to understand and yet remarkably
simple.