"Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls"

"Pied Beauty"

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.

Thank you to Laurie Miller for introducing us to the Victorian poet Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844 - 1889) and the poem, "Pied Beauty."

Quoting Laurie Miller ~ "Longfellow's poem ["The Village Blacksmith"] uses the strength of the tree and the extent of its shade, probably as emblems of the blacksmith's strength, etc., but the one [poem] I think of ["Pied Beauty"] goes to the transient heart of the blossoms themselves."

*Pied/ Parti-coloured;

  Stipple/ w/dots, small spots or flecks.

~ Canadian Oxford Dictionary

"Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls"