Pied Beauty

this is a slide presentation of Pied Beauty

1. PIED BEAUTY By: Gerard Manley Hopkins 1

2. THE POEM 2

3. BACKGROUND OF THE POEM 3

4. GLORY BE TO GOD 4

5. The heavens declare the glory of God. The earth is the lord’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his mercy endures forever. 5

6. Praise the Lord;...... Praise him for his mighty acts;..... Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. 6

7. ANALYSIS OF THE POEM 7

8. GLORY BE TO GOD FOR DAPPLED THINGS 8

9. FOR SKIES OF COUPLE-COLOUR AS A BRINDED COWS 9

10. FOR ROSE-MOLES ALL IN STIPPLE UPON TROUT THAT SWIM 10

11. FRESH- FIRECOAL CHESTNUT- FALLS; FINCHES’ WINGS 11

12. LANDSCAPE PLOTTED AND PIECED-FOLD FALLOW AND PLOUGH 12

13. AND ALL TRADES, THEIR GEAR AND TACKLE AND TRIM 13

14. ALL THINGS COUNTER, ORIGINAL, SPARE, STRANGE; 14

15. WHATEVER IS FICKLE, FRECKLED (WHO KNOWS HOW?) 15

16. WITH SWIFT, SLOW, SWEET, SOUR; ADAZZLE, DIM ; SWIFT & SLOW SWEET & SOUR DAZZLE & DIM 16

17. HE FATHERS-FORTH WHOSE BEAUTY IS PAST CHANGE; 17

18. Oh, Lord my God ,when I in awesome wonder Consider all the works thy hands have made; I see the stars I hear the mighty thunder Thy power throughout the universe displayed Then sings my Lord, my Saviour God to thee How great Thou art, How great Thou art 18

19. 19 PRAISE HIM

20. THEMES OF THE POEM 20

21. Nature Hopkins has a poet’s sharp eye for the intricate details in nature and this poem is rooted in the landscape he knows very well. Full of reference to British flora and fauna. He values all creatures and believes everyone of them is beautiful. Hopkins has a large & vast appreciation of nature. As a painter, Hopkins sees everything with an artistic eye. In this poem, Hopkins epitomises the beauty of different colours which he finds in nature. Hopkins sees nature as pied. He includes all the aspects in a broadest concept; sky, land and sea. The poet brings-out a sense of calmness and tranquillity of nature. 21

22. 2) Praising God Hopkins is a priest. Therefore he always praises God for everything. His theory is that everything in this world should be praised, without considering how they look like; everything has a beauty. He wants us to glorify God and all his creations. In the poem “Pied Beauty”, Hopkins glorifies God for “dappled things”. He glorifies God even for “fickle freckled”. Hopkins tells though the creations of God have undergone changes, God is beyond change. God’s attribute of immutability is praised. Thematically, this poem is a simple hymn of praise for “dappled things”. 22

23. 3) Diversity “Pied Beauty” is a hymn of praise to the variety of God’s creation which is contrasted with the unity and non-changing nature of God. Diversity is embodied in the “dappled things” of nature- piebald clouds, cattle, trout, finches and so on. Diversity in the sense the poet not only talks about big objects as sky, but also talks about small objects as finches. Hopkins celebrates diversity in God’s creation. Hopkins adopts the Catholic view that God is the only unity in the world- everything exists in diversity. 23

24. 4) Unity in diversity There is unity in diversity, in the poet’s juxtaposition of contrasting elements. Thus, the solid familiar form of the cow is set against the unbounded, infinite sky, just as the various finite and ever changing forms of creation are set against oneness, infinity and constancy of God. All the things in nature are united as the creations of God. 24

25. 5) Beauty The poem is a celebration of beauty in all its forms. Whether fickle or freckled; fragile or changeable, all God’s creations have beauty in their own unique ways. According to the poem, everything and everybody is beautiful in its own way. Hopkins sees beauty where others sees flaws. The appreciation of beauty in this Victorian poetry is a reaction to the spread of ugliness under the impact of relentless industrialisation. 25

26. 6) Transience According to the poem, the beauty of the earth is on change. Hopkins sees the same patterns of transient beauty in the greatness of a clouded sky or the smallness of finches’ wings. Though man also has the power of creation, it is not permanent. According to the poet, God is the only being that doesn’t change. 26

27. 7) Man and Nature At a time, when industrial revolution was prompting many writers to lament over the growing gap between man and nature and the consequent destruction of the country side, this poem is a celebration of the oneness between rural man and land. Hopkins portrays man as another organic part of God’s creation. The trades mentioned by the poet bring man into a co-operative and creative relationship with nature as well as Creator. “their gear and tackled and trim” 27

28. 8) Moral and personal aspect The “fresh- firecoal chestnut-falls” seems to open-up a moral and personal aspect to the theme of variety. The idea of broken-open chestnuts revealing a shining hidden glory within. It suggests that an unremarkable or flawed exterior can conceal a beautiful divinely inspired soul. This suggestion is picked-up by the ambitious adjectives “fickle, freckled”, which are commonly used to describe things which were not approved by the Victorian mainstream, like inconstant lovers and flawed complexion. 28

29. STYLE OF THE POEM 29

30. Curtal Sonnet “Pied Beauty” is a curtal or shortened sonnets. It differs from the standard Petrarchan sonnet. In the curtal sonnet, the octave becomes a sestet and the sestet becomes a quatrain (four lines), followed by a half-line tail-piece. The progression is from the vast and infinite to the small and particular. The second stanza or quatrain reverses this process, ranging from the particular and varied “All things,” to the more abstract qualities such as swiftness and slowness, thence to God’s act of creation (“He fathers-forth,”) and ultimately, to the unchanging nature of God himself . 30

31. SPRUNG RHYTHM Hopkins based his sprung rhythm on the metrical systems of Anglo-Saxon and traditional Welsh poetry. Sprung rhythm is based on the number of stressed syllables in a line and permits any number of unstressed syllables. Each foot consists of a first strongly stressed syllable, which either stands alone or is followed by unstressed syllables. Generally there are between one and four. Eg : “Glory | be to | God for | dappled | things,” 31

32. DICTION Use of compound/ hyphenated words / Neologism. “couple- colour ” “rose-moles” “Fresh- firecoal ” “chestnut-falls” Hopkins’s use of compound words is a deliberate borrowing from the Anglo-Saxon and Welsh poetic traditions. Use of unusual synonyms. ‘pied, dappled, couple- colour , freckled’ 32

33. ALLITERATION Line 1:.... G lory be to  G od  Line 2:....s k ies of  c ouple- c olour as a brinded   c ow  Line 4:.... F resh- f irecoal  chestnut- f alls;  f inches  Line 5:.... L andscape  pl otted and  p ieced  Line 6:.... t rádes , their gear and  t ackle and  t rim  Line 7:.... s pare,  s trange  Line 9:.... s wift,  s low;  s weet,  s our; a d azzle ,  d im Line10:... H e  f athers- f orth  wh ose 33

34. PIED BEAUTY G lory be to G od for dappled  things —     For skies of  c ouple- c olour  as a  brinded   c ow ;       For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim ;   F resh- f irecoal chestnut- f alls ;  f inches ’ wings ;   Landscape p lotted and p ieced— f old , f allow , and p lough ;     And all t rades , their gear and t ackle and  t rim . All things counter, original, s pare , s trange ;     Whatever is f ickle , f reckled ( wh o knows h ow ?)       With s wift , s low ; s weet , s our ; adazzle , dim ;   He  f athers- f orth  whose beauty is past change : Praise him . 34

35. Rhyme Scheme The rhyme scheme of “Pied Beauty” is a-b-c-a-b-c for the sestet, and d-b-c-d-c for the quatrain and tail-piece. Eg : 35   things - wings cow – plough - how swim – trim – dim – him Strange - change   

36. CONSONANCE ‘da pp le d’ ‘sti pp le ’ ‘ta ck le ’ ‘fi ck le ’ ‘fre ck le d’ 36

37. Old testament biblical hymn/ Psalm writing style. Starts with “Glory be to God” Ends with “Praise Him” Tone is exuberant & spirited. The speaker is Hopkins himself. STYLE , TONE & SPEAKER 37

38. 38

39. Oxymoron swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle , dim ;   Anaphora “For skies of couple- colour  as a  brinded  cow;       For  rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;” Other devices 39

40. Metaphor Line 3: “rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim”  Comparison of the spots on a speckled trout to moles Line 4: “Fresh- firecoal chestnut-falls”  Comparison of chestnut kernels to burning coals Line 10: “suckled in a creed outworn” Comparison of  creed  to a mother nursing her child Simile Lines 2: “skies of couple- colour as a brinded cow” Comparison of skies to a cow METAPHOR, SIMILE & IMAGERY 40

41. Inscape is a concept that Hopkins derived from the medieval philosopher Duns Scotus . Everything in the universe, according to Hopkins, is characterized by a distinctive design that constitutes individual identity. In other words, inscape is those characteristics that give each thing in the world its uniqueness and, differentiating it from other things. INSCAPE 41

42. “Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)  ” RHETORICAL QUESTION APOSTROPHE “Praise him” 42

43. “He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:” This ending is gently ironic and beautifully surprising: the entire poem has been about variety, and then God's attribute of  immutability  is praised in contrast. By juxtaposing God's changelessness with the vicissitude of His creation, His separation from creation is emphasized, as is His vast creativity. IRONY 43

44. A Sunday Afternoon in the Park Point Art By: Georges Seurat 44

45. AN OVERVIEW OF THE POEM “PIED BEAUTY” 45

46. Conclusion “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James 1:17 Nature is the lovely manifestations of God 46

47. Bibliography “God’s Grandeur,” in Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Major Works, edited by Catherine Phillips, Oxford University Press, 1986. Letter to Robert Bridges, February 15, 1879, in Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Major Works, edited by Catherine Phillips, Oxford University Press, 1986. “Pied Beauty,” in Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Major Works, edited by Catherine Phillips, Oxford University Press, 1986, pp. 132–33. “Jesuits Worldwide,” in Jesuits in Britain, the official website of the British Province of the Society of Jesus, Lowell, Robert, “Hopkins’s Sanctity,” in Gerard Manley Hopkins: A Critical Symposium by the Kenyon Critics, Burns & Oates, 1975, p. 92. Mariani , Paul L., A Commentary on the Complete Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, Cornell University Press, 1970. Milward , Peter, S.J., A Commentary on the Sonnets of G. M. Hopkins, Hokuseido Press, 1969. http://www.jesuit.org.uk/overseas/worldwide.htm (25-05- 2015). 47

48. CONCLUSION 48

49. THANK YOU 49