TODAY IS THE BIRTHDAY OF GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS

Today (28 July 2009) is the birthday of Gerard Manley Hopkins, whose words grace the title bar of this blog, Good Faith and the Common Good. Enjoy!



Pied Beauty

by Gerard Manley Hopkins

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 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.