Dappled Things – Better Living Through Literature

So all this talk of paint horses, and spotted animals (did we all like the alpaca’s ear pom-poms?), coupled with constantly wiping ups drips of latex paint, made me think of the Gerard Manley Hopkins (great name) sonnet on spotted things.

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;	5
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:	10
Praise him.