11.15.2008

Glory Be



I finally canned our applesauce last week, and as I was sorting apples into bowls lined up on the counter, I was struck by how much nicer it is to wash dirt off of wild apples than it is to wash poison off of glossy, tended ones.

This is a fair observation, not a smug one, because I used some beautiful, poisonous apples, too. Praise Him for all.


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 áll trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spáre, strange;
Whatever is fickle, frecklèd (who knows how?)
With swíft, slów; sweet, sóur; adázzle, dím;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is pást change:

Práise hím.

-
Gerard Manley Hopkins

6 comments :

Peter said...

Abby,

Are you copying me again? I just bought a book of Hopkin's poetry last weekend in Phila.

Abigail said...

Yep. He called me right after you left, and I immediately bought my own copy.

What are big brothers good for if not to copy their good taste?

Abigail said...

"He" is the bookshop owner, of course...

Anonymous said...

Love the apple pics and the posts. I'm looking forward to seeing what the hustle and bustle of the upcoming holidays are creating for your beautiful family.

P.S. I figured out what I needed to do to no longer be...anonymous!

Laura said...

I am craving Christmas shotsnaps... and Christmas cookies (but who isn't?)

Abigail said...

Molly,
At first I thought you were a girl I knew in college, but she spells her name differently, so welcome, New Molly! At this very moment, there is no hustle and bustle. We're blessedly tucked in the house with blankets and books while the first flakes of the promised snowstorm come down.

Laura,
New snapshots/shotnaps! Alas, although I baked Christmas cookies yesterday, they're gone. Next week, perhaps?