Dappled

Those of you who follow my journal may be aware that I'm not a religious man. But, here is a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins which I studied at school. In spite of the Jesuit sentiments I like it:


Pied Beauty

Glory be to God for dappled things -
For skies of couple-colour as a brindled 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