from the teaching files
of children's author & educator
Barbara Jean Hicks
A POEM FOR THANKSGIVING
On this weekend of thanks-giving, here's a favorite poem that celebrates many wonderful gifts we've been given, if only we open our eyes.
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 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.
Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1899)
The photo of the “couple-coulored skies” is from Ann Wilson’s blog, One Pilgrim’s Journey, and was taken in Strasburg, Colorado. Happy Thanksgiving to all!
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