Christina: Pied Beauty

‘Pied Beauty’ is a short but complex poem, an expression of the poet’s delight and astonishment at nature in all its diversity as well as a hymn of praise to God for all He has created. A major theme of this poem is that all individual beauty in nature and man are an expression of God’s beauty. The poet takes particular interest in ‘dappled things’, things of multiple colors and patterns. This is an interesting vision, of a world so full of variety and color.

In lines 3 to 5, aspects of grand scale and beauty like land and sea are compared to minute, common points of beauty like insects and birds. The ‘couple- color’ of the sky is compared to a cow’s hide. The patched farmland of the countryside is compared to ‘flinches’ wings’. The patterns on fishes resemble paint on canvas. Beauty is also found in man- made things and the activities of men, and God is praised for this too.

The poet believes that everything has individual beauty and its own inner energy. “All things counter, original, spare, strange……fickle, freckled” refers to the multi- character things and people of the world; they are all creations of God, though some qualities a person or things possesses are more appealing than others. The line “swift, slow, sweet, sour, adazzle, dim” also shows the contrast of qualities in nature. To the poet this natural beauty is unchangeable, eternal and beautiful. The poet begins and ends his poem with praise to the creative power of God.