Pied Beauty
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 áll trádes, 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 Manly Hopkins
All things counter, original, spare, strange -- words to garden by! Do I spy the spiral aloe?
ReplyDeleteWords to garden by, yes indeed! That is A. polyphylla, still alive, replanted. I'm still hoping it can prosper here.
ReplyDeleteI like the poem, too, along with your original and strange photos. Thanks for showing us what the poet meant.
ReplyDelete