Hopkins: "Pied Beauty" (Andrew Peterson)

Season one of Rhyme & Reason is finished, but we wanted to share a few bonus episodes featuring some of Gerard Manley Hopkins’s most popular poems that weren’t covered in the main season. We’ve invited Andrew Peterson, songwriter, author, and founder of the Rabbit Room to read them. This is a reading of “Pied Beauty.”

Music from this episode was from EVOE and Maya Belsitzman & Matan Ephrat. Sound design and editing is by Nate Sheppard.

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Episode Transcript

S1 (00:00):
I'm Andy Patton and this is a bonus episode of
Rhyme and Reason from the Rabbit Room. Season one of
Rhyme and Reason is finished, but we thought we would
share a few extra episodes to tide you over while
we're working on season two. All season long, we've been
looking at the life and work of Gerard Manley Hopkins,

(00:22):
and true fans of Hopkins will have noticed that we
had to leave out a few of Hopkins most popular poems.
So we have invited Andrew Peterson, songwriter, author and founder
of The Rabbit Room, to circle back and share a
few Hopkins poems that didn't make it into the main season.
So here you go. This is Andrew Peterson reading Hopkins

(00:42):
poem Pied Beauty.

S2 (00:49):
Glory be to God for dappled things, for skies of
couple color, as a brinded cow, for rose moles. All
in stipple upon trout that swim fresh fire. Coal chestnut falls.
Finches wings. Landscape plotted and pieced. Fold, fallow and plough.

(01:11):
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 a dazzle dim.
He fathers forth. Whose beauty is past change. Praise him.