This was a short poem with a long meaning. Hopkins seeks to encourage us to glorify God for "all" things. We often take so many things for granted and not give proper thanks.
"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;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim."
Hopkins points out images and colors like white and blue colors of the sky; streaked hide of a cow, rose moles on trout, coals that are black internally and red inside. All of these things seems to suggest he wants to bring focus to being thankful for nature's full array of beauty and our ability to even witness the beauty of these things through sight, touch, smell, taste, etc.
The last line is short and sweet: "Praise him." (Line 11)
The long and short of it is praise God for all things. This includes stopping to recognize the beauty in all things. I believe we get so busy with "life", sometimes we don't stop to appreciate what life ready is....the beauty of God's creations.
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I also emphasized Hopkins' emphasis on glorifying God in my journal entry. He IS very concentrated on "nature's full array of beauty." (That's an eloquent description, by the way :) Maybe it's just me, but I feel like the way he closed was almost reminiscent of a Psalm: "Praise him." That seemed very appropriate considering his mindset and everything.
ReplyDeleteAngela,
ReplyDeleteVery good post on a challenging poem. Your reading of Hopkins does a very effective job of bringing out his multiple levels of meaning. Nice work!
Really good post in understanding this poem. I had difficulty in reading it therefore I skipped this poem but you make it sound easy to read.
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