Pied Beauty” as a Religious Poem

Answer

Consider “Pied Beauty” as a religious poem.

Or, Describe Hopkins as a religious poet with reference to “Pied Beauty.”

“Pied Beauty” is a curtal sonnet composed in 1877 and published in 1918 in the posthumous collection Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844 – 1889). The description of the poem makes it a fantastic religious poem. He was an English poet and Jesuit priest. As a professional touch, he composes the poem. After scanning the poem, we get sundry religious points of view below.

Observation of Dappled Things: Dappled things mean multi-colored things. The speaker of the poem observes dappled things at the outset of the poem. The speaker thinks that God is the creator of these multi-colored things, which are fantastically fantastic. He quotes sky, cow, fish, bird, landscape, and trades to show dappled things around us. As a priest, he can feel the spiritual element in these things that refer to religious belief. In poet’s tongue:

Glory be to God for dappled things

Declaration of God’s Glorification by All Things: The poem’s speaker declares God’s glorification without any media. The poet covers a wide range of things to illustrate the pied beauty of the world, which bears the sign of God’s glory. The poet mentions skies of couple-color, the trout with their rose-colored skin spotted with black, fallen chestnuts revealing the reddish-brown nut, finches’ wings, the landscape which looks like a patchwork, and all trades. He also mentions the things which are opposite in nature to the declaration of God’s glorification. The poet says:

For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;

For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;

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And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

No Creation Can Be Avoided: In the poem, Hopkins means to say that we should praise our creator. If small things can be superb for beauty, He makes us, the best creation of God, how beautiful we are. Spiritually, the speaker says that we should not avoid any creation of God because every creation has a different type of sign of the almighty God.

Acceptance of Imperfection: Hopkins emphasizes the beauty in imperfection, emphasizing that even the flawed and imperfect parts of creation hold a unique charm. This notion reminds us of God’s acceptance and love for His creation.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;

Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)

Power of God’s Creations: Man has created many things. These are beautiful as well. But these are not permanent. On the other hand, God’s creations are beautiful, as is Himself. The beauty of God is permanent and not changeable. He says we should praise God, the creator of all dappled things, for permanent beauty. For example, God creates our tongue, which is the mysterious part of our body. Our tongue can recognize more than one taste. The poet quotes:

With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;

He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

Praise him.

Humility and Gratitude: “Pied Beauty” inspires a sense of humility and gratitude towards God’s creation. It urges us to recognize and be grateful for the blessings surrounding us, fostering a greater appreciation for the wonders of the natural world. The poem instills a profound sense of wonder and reverence for the diversity and complexity of creation. It encourages us to open our eyes to the beauty within imperfections and find spiritual fulfillment in the special wonders of nature.

To sum up, in light of the above discussion, we can say that this poem is a purely religious poem by Hopkins. Every line of the poem has both, directly and indirectly, the touch of God’s supremacy. The poet directly praises God in the poem.