Poetry, whether written in 1877 or 1922, has a brilliant effect of diving into one’s mind and unfolding latent meanings that otherwise remain undiscovered (Browning and Cousin 242-243, 331). Coming from two opposite worlds, Gerard Hopkins and Robert Frost have both left their imprints on the universal galaxy of poetry. “Pied Beauty” written by Hopkins in the 19th century alongside Frost’s 20th century “Design,” are two identical yet alien poems that express the concept of religion through the usage of literary elements such as imagery and theme.
Evidently, both poems have raindrops of nature imagery prinkled throughout which consequents a likeness between them. Given the fact that “Design’ begins with a scene in nature,” an instant aura of earth-like visuals comes about (Fagan and Seltzer 46). Further, Hopkins sets up his ethereal scene by incorporating vivid images such as how a “Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls,” alongside “finches’ wings/” and “Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;” (4-5). In a similar vein, Hopkins and Frost utilize uncommon yet colorful diction in order to compose such detailed and serene imagery. Alongside a nature scene image, Hopkins and Frost both use imagery in a imilar way to entrance their readers into a whole new setting that is meticulous in site.
In a like fashion, neither Hopkins nor Frost incorporate humans into their poems which binds them together even further. Pied Beauty” and “Design” have images split within two stanzas to keep their imagery precise and concise. Because of the environmental description in “Pied Beauty” and “Design,” a complementary element of imagery is forms that links the two poems together. flourish throughout the poems; however, the two authors paint completely different pictures when the key images of the poems generate forward. A primary discrepancy between the two Aspects of nature poems is the colors that shadow behind every image.
Whereas “Pied Beauty” accentuates the colorful world that God has spawned, Hopkins also pinpoints the idea that everything has beauty as illustrated in the following: Hopkins tells us that there is glory, beauty, in the joining of dissimilar, in the jostling, the cheek-by-jowling, of the infinitude of differents. There is beauty in the joining of white cloud and blue sky, there is beauty in the contrast of the brinded (‘tawny or grayish with streaks or spots of a darker color’) cow, there is piedness in the myriad colors of he rose-moles along the trout’s belly (Ross 238).
Pied Beauty” parades no mercy when it comes to all things being a heavenly gift from our Father no matter the design or color. Opposing, Frost has a stringent color scheme in his work with no room for variation. In “Design, ” Frost depicts all things as white, even if not ordinarily so, such as: I found a dimpled spider, fat and white/ On a white heal-all, holding up a moth/ Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth/ with the purpose of installing a sense of purity and peacefulness because of such an innocent perfectionism that assosciates with such a glowing hue (Frost 1-3).
That image soon takes a 180° turn to the direction of Hell as Frost then incorporates: Assorted characters of death and blight/ Mixed ready to begin the morning right,/ Like the ingredients of a witches’ broth which transform the former purity into a dark tunnel of heinous imagery (4-6).
This completely contradicts Hopkins’s idea of divine beauty as Frost incorporates insidiousness into the imagery of his poem while Hopkins ensues the concept that “just as the world presents us with an amiable (apparent) jumble of piednesses, for us to find the beauty of, a poet who wishes to pie a poem must present a multiplicity of structures, rubbing up gainst each other, vying with each other, contrapuntally, polyphonically, multifacetedly” (Ross 238).
Deviation in imagery ornaments every line of these two poems which constitutes a thoroughly pure and diversely beautiful image in “Pied Beauty” while simultaneously opening one’s eyes to the peacefully corrupt picture created by Frost in his harmonious/hasty choice of color imagery in “Design”. the new world and old world poems arises the controversial concept of religion. “Design” does not stray away from religion given the point of fact that Frost does “not dispute the idea that the poem explores the existence and nature of god” (Clarke 14).
Corresponding with Frost’s religious ideology is Hopkins’s joyous outlook to God which he portrays in the fundamental line of the poem: “Glory be to God for dappled things” (Hopkins 1). Within “Pied Beauty,” “The ‘argument of the poem moves from the first line in which the poet alone praises God for the beauty of ‘dappled things,’ to the last line in which the ‘viewer’ is asked to join in such praise” which has a repercussion of embellishing the poem with a constant reassurance of a religious theme (Lowenstein 65).
Earth being a creation of some type of omnipotent religious figure is a concurrent theme represented y the two poems. Perhaps the discrepancy in theme between the poems can unearth back to the divergent lives of the poets themselves. The deeply joyous religious theme that fireworks throughout “Pied Beauty” may derive from the fact that “Hopkins was a Jesuit priest; his life and art were centered in a mystic’s vision” (Ross 237).
Whereas “Hopkins sees God as the consummate harmonizer, the ideal artist in perfect control over his darting, speckled, freckled, spotted, striped, contrasting phenomena in all their transitory beauty,” Frost distances himself from the idea of an all-loving and accepting God by liciting a darker thought to his readers (Lowenstein 65).
Be that as it may, Frost courses his controversial religious theme down a perilous tunnel as depicted by the following: “That they are ‘like the ingredients of a witches’ broth’ (6) only makes them more ominous, as does the speaker’s assertion that they are ‘ready to begin the morning right’ (5), which, if read as ‘morning rite,’ recalls the un-Christian rituals alluded to in the next line” (Fagan A congruence in theme between and seltzer 49).
While Hopkins surrounds his piece with God’s acceptance of all things no matter their characteristics, Frost uestions the work of God by proposing the idea of Satan, or a completely random force controlling the universe as brought forth in the last two lines, “What but design of darkness to appall? / If design govern in a thing so small” (13-14). The rhetorical question ignites a puzzling fire to see if “Robert Frost’s ‘Design’ supports the idea of a godless universe or a universe created by an evil god” (Clarke 114).
This completely contradicts “Pied Beauty” because there is no question that the pious poem even has a moment of hesitation that there is a benevolent God above. Hopkins parades his poem with “Praise Him,” as the ompressed two-word conclusion which reiterates one final time the omnipresent glorification of God in a religious standpoint which is in a completely different vein than “Design” (11). Even though Frost questions the existence of a God that concocts such beautiful things, he makes sure to sprinkle in a religious theme that highlights the heaven, the hell and the unknown about the world.
Meanwhile, Hopkins never strays of his twisted course of righteousness as his religious theme focal points one lavish and bountiful God that shines nothing but light onto his array of angelic creations. reviously noted, Hopkins’s religious background as a priest certainly had influence on his glorious ode in “Pied Beauty” while Frost wanders off the trail of divinity into a forest of skepticism.
From similarities of a nature image to a disparity in color that alter their formerly similar image. From a likeness in religious theme about a God to a discrepancy between God and the devil. Hopkins and Frost are from two centuries yet their poetry stays timeless as their two stanzas of brilliance reveal both similarities and differences with regard to imagery and theme throughout their ingenious poems.
