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 àll tràdes, 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.

illustration of a brook trout
“rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim”
(see “Pied Beauty,” line 3)
Brinded calf in the grass at St. Beuno's
“couple-colour as a brinded cow”
(see “Pied Beauty,” line 2)

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