Hymn in Sprung Rhythm

"Pied Beauty" has no regular meter. Instead, Hopkins invented "sprung rhythm." In this case, the name says it all. "Sprung rhythm" is like a spring, or more accurately, many small springs scattered throughout the poem. The accents and downbeats are concentrated together. The rhythm consists o small e!plosions o energy. " ten, the grouping o accented syllables results in the cramming together o meaning as well. # per ect e!ample occurs in line $% Fresh fire&coal chest&nut&falls. Hopkins literally uses words together in order to have the ma!imum amount o meaning and accents using the minimum number o words. The rhythm is characteri'ed by stops and starts. #nother way that Hopkins creates strong accents is by using alliteration everywhere. There is alliteration in (almost) every single line. "Sprung rhythm" is the big takeaway rom Hopkins*s poetry. "Pied Beauty" does not have a regular orm. Its genre, on the other hand, is a hymn. Hymns are religious songs o praise and prayer, and this poem takes its cues rom the Book o Psalms in the Bible. The poem has two stan'as, the irst with si! lines and the second with ive (assuming you count the inal two words "Praise Him," as their own line). There are not a standard number o syllables per line. However, look at the way that each group o three lines is indented like three stairs going down. The poem has a rather complicated rhyme scheme, and lines with the same indentation tend to rhyme at the end. The scheme goes% #B+#B+ ,B-,-. Then the last line "Praise Him" is set apart with its own indentation ar to the right. It almost looks like the concluding "amen" o a religious prayer.

Pied Beauty Summary

The speaker says we should glori y .od because he has given us dappled, spotted, reckled, checkered, speckled, things. (This poem says "dappled" in a lot o di erent ways.) The speaker goes on to give e!amples. /e should praise .odbecause o the skies with two colors, like a two&colored cow. #nd the little reddish dots on the side o trout. #nd the way allen chestnuts look like red coals in a ire. #nd the blended colors o the wings o a inch (a kind o bird). #nd landscapes divided up by humans into plots or arming. #nd or all the di erent 0obs that humans do. In short, the speaker thinks we should praise .od or everything that looks a bit odd or uni1ue, everything that looks like it doesn*t 1uite it in with the rest. #ll these beauti ul, mi!ed&up, ever&changing things were created or " athered" by a .od who never changes. The speaker sums up what he believes should be our attitude in a brie , inal line% "Praise Him."

Summary of the Poem ........lory to .od, the speaker says, or giving the world spotted, streaked, and multicolored things. Blue skies, or e!ample, may display streaks o white or gray&&or the colors o the sunset. In this respect, skies are like cows, which may be brown with streaks or patches o another color. #nd then there are the speckled trout and the allen chestnuts with open hulls that reveal kernels with an intense color resembling the glow o burning coal. +onsider also, the speaker says, the multicolored wings o the inches and the armland with patches o green contrasting with plowed or allow patches o brown. #nd what o the variety o tools and kits and e1uipment that dapple the workplace o men2 .......There are many varieties o odd and strange things in the world&&some o them original, one o a kind. The 1ualities o these ickle things may be reckled with opposites. Swi tness may be reckled with slowness, sweetness with sourness, brightness with dimness. .......But He who brings orth dappled things is not Himsel dappled. He is changeless, ever the same. .......Praise him. ..