Brief+Analysis

"Pied Beauty" Brief Analysis

Hopkins is a man of God. He wrote many poems about God and chooses the vehicle of nature to try and show his readers the greatness of the Lord. This poem is very simple to see and I don't think it should be over analyzed. The first line says "Glory be to God for dappled things". The next four lines back up the first line of the poem and give the reader examples of dapple things in nature. The speaker makes comparisons between seemingly unsimilar things in nature to demonstraight what Hopkins calls inscape. Inscape is characterized by the unique pattern of all living things given by God, according to Hopkins. Hopkins beleives that by showing the reader the differences yet subtle similarites in comparing things in nature the existance of God can be further confirmed. The last five lines of the poem are an elaboration beyond the physical characteristics that gives so many things their beauty. These lines point out to the reader that beauty can be many different things but they are beautiful becuase they are created in the image of God. From all the unique trades and diversity of man in line six to the contrasting adjectives in line nine; it is all beautiful and made by the Lord. What Hopkins is trying to prove throughout the poem is the beauty of inscape and creation does not lie in the specific pattern of beauty in one animal or thing in nature but in the patterns and unifying design created by God that can be seen through all things. In the finale of the poem the speaker points out how all things are made in the creativeness of God and therefore are great, "Praise him".

...finches mentioned in the first half of the poem