The Instress and Inscape in Hopkin’s Pied Beauty

G. M. Hopkins’s “Pied Beauty”

In “Pied Beauty” we see a striking dualism in which the nature of beings is rendered in all that is unique, particular and individual. All multiplicity and diversity are the gift of God in the creation of being, emanating from Himself. Gerard Manley Hopkins gives praises to God for the natural beauty of the world, the variety of it and how everything fits together. God symbolizes what is constant and unchangeable. Unlike the things he creates, God never varies. Hopkins' symbols confirm his theme that a wondrous father exist because the worlds if full of beautiful things living in harmony.

The Instress and Inscape in “Pied Beauty”:

The Inscape: is the uniqueness of each creature in nature. Each has a distinctive design that constitutes individual identity. Inscape is the differences between creatures.

The Instress: is the apprehension of an object in an intense thrust of energy that enables one to realize the its specific distinctiveness. It is the movement that links the creatures together. Instress is the similarities between the creatures.

1st Example “For skies of couple-color as a brinded cow;”:

Hopkins takes two different creatures in the nature and contemplate in them. Both the sky and the cow have a unique and different identity. The cow is an animal that has a short period of life whereas the sky is there since the beginning of creation. So, this is the inscape where we have an obvious difference between the compared things. The instress here is that God gives spots and splashes on the sky and the cow. For sky, it is spotted with a darker color. It is full of clouds that may be white or gray which depends on the condition of the weather. Moreover, the sky gives different colors during the day and according to the season. In the evening we notice the beautiful orange reddish color that mixed with the mauve. Lilac and purple colors are mixed with black at night. The cows are different in colors too; there are white with black spots, black, white and reddish brown. Therefore, God created things that are multicolored such as skies, cows to see His majesty .At the same time all things are counter, original, spare and strange which are manifestations of God's greatness. It is the colorful world where 'dappled things' and 'fickled and freckled' things utterly fit together. The cows are branded and the skies coupled. The cow and the sky are giving creatures; the cow gives milk as well as the sky that water the earth with rain.

2nd Example “For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;”:

God created things that are multicolored such as rose-moles and trout. These things are dappled, branded, stippled, strange, and freckled. The inscape is both the rose-moles and the trout have distinctive and unique design that constitutes individual identity. The rose is a plant that lives on the ground whereas the trout is a kind of fish that swims under the sea. The instress here is that both are multicolored. There are spots of pink on the trout that swims and there are splashes on the roses. Roses have diverse colors and each rose may have multicolor. Each one of these creatures has a movement and energy that demonstrates their diversity. For the rose, the life cycle of it shows this variety of colors. The baby rose starts with the light green color then, with the process of growing, the original