July Poem of the Month, Pied Beauty

As a lover of dappled sunlight, I was immediately drawn to this poem and was reminded of it today when it was mentioned in my current summer read, "Middlesex".

Pied Beauty

Glory be to God for dappled things,

For skies of couple-color 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.

---Gerard Manley Hopkins

As a special treat, I found a reading of this month's poem on YouTube. See what you think.