Thursday, October 24, 2013

A recitation of "Pied Beauty"

On Applebutter Day, my grandson Dominic Haug, age 9, reminded me that he could recite for memory one of my favorite poems.    Dominic, Luke and Alex are homeschooled, and their father has supervised the memorization of classical poems.     Reciting poems was part of my schooling, but an unfamiliar skill for most children today.

                                                   Pied Beauty
     Glory be to God for dappled things --
        For skies of couple-color as a brindle 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. . .
                                                        Praise Him.
                - Girard Manley Hopkins -