Monday, July 16, 2012

The Mnemosyne Weekly: Poem Twenty (Hopkins)



Gerard Manley Hopkins

Pied Beauty 


What a delicious poem this is. I could just eat it. The glorious, delight in sound is a true celebration of language, infused with divinity--dappled, pied, plotted, and pieced. As you can tell by now, I have drifted far from my original intention not to talk about the poems in the body of the post. They're just too exciting.

So, this week our poet is Gerard Manley Hopkins. Hopkins was a Victorian poet and Jesuit priest, known for developing a poetic technique known as sprung rhythm, which sought to imitate the natural patterns of speech.

To hear a beautiful reading of the poem, please click HERE.

If you're new to the blog, you might want to look at the first Mnemosyne Post to find out what this project is all about.

                                             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.


5 comments:

  1. Thank you Melissa for this artist's selection. It made me slow my pace and return to the moment, to observe colors and lively creatures and sights that are 'dappled.' It brought me into the now to remind me of the creator that Hopkins urges us to laud. Beautiful moments spent with you both!
    Scott

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    1. Aww. Thanks. I've been noticing dappled things everywhere now too. xo

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  2. Hopkins-liking minds think alike, Melissa. As The Windhover was my Mnemosyne by-heart last week (http://byheart.readmesomethingyoulove.com/blog/category/2-the-windhover/). Thanks for stopping by the blog the other day. Steve

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    1. You are so right, Steve! You have no idea how happy I am to have found a like-thinking mind and to be involved with each other's blogs! Your project energizes my project all the more. I've put a link to your site here too. Looking forward to reading more of your blog!

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