Gerald Manley Hopkins

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;

        Landscapes 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.

The thing I liked most about this piece was the topic- a beauty that was not perfect. The idea that something can be loved and enjoyed without being judged against a warped ideal is liberating, since it goes against most of today’s society’s conceptions.

If you create something imperfect, and love it for what it is, Hopkins seems to be saying, good for you.

There are communities where artisans avoid creating something perfect, and purposefully create things that have a fault when they work, that their work be more appreciated than the results of the machine made products that our communities thrive on.

If your significant other were perfect, and everything else were perfect, they would all be the same. And then what makes your significant other outstanding to you? Nothing.

In order to appreciate something, you need to not only appreciate their strengths, but also theirv weaknesses, and the history that brought them to where they are today.