Paradox, Tension and Ambiguity in G.M.

Hopkins
Poems

Gerard Manley Hopkins was an English poet and a Jesuit priest. He

became famous posthumously and his fame established him among the
leading Victorian poets. The one who reads his poetry is struck especially by
his prosodic and imagery innovations.1 His poems are best read in a new
criticist manner, due to the fact that the texts are full of what a new critic
would call paradox, tension and ambiguity.
In order to go further into analyzing one of his poems, Pied Beauty, I
shall briefly present the American New Criticism. This method is a formalist
one and examines through close reading the relationships between a texts
ideas and its form.2 The critics make use of certain devices such as irony,
paradox, tension and ambiguity. Furthermore, I would like to define the last
three terms: A paradox represents a statement that seems to be selfcontradictory and that includes a latent truth 3. Tension refers to balanced
opposites that provide form and unity to a literary work (such as the tension
between the literal and the metaphorical meanings of a work) 4. And last, but
not least, ambiguity refers to a wording that can be read in different ways5 .

1 POET: GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS - ALL POEMS OF GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS.

"POET: GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS - ALL POEMS OF GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS."
Poemhunter.com. 12 Dec. 2014.
2 "New Criticism." New Criticism, Web. 10 Dec. 2014
3 "Paradox." Literary Devices, Web. 11 Dec. 2014.
4 "Literary Terms and Definitions T." Literary Terms and Definitions T. 12 Dec. 2014.

Pied Beauty represents a poem that praises God for his mixed creation.
The poem presents Nature in its variety created by a God that is one and not
dappled. It begins and ends pulsing for praising God, but, in the middle,
there appear two enumerations showing the variety of beauty. The first
enumeration makes itself distinct through concrete and specific language
(skies, trout, chestnuts etc.), while the second one through abstract and
general language (original, spare, strange etc.). Also, before the ending
praise of God, the poet specifies that Gods beauty, unlike creations beauty,
does not change, it is immutable.6
In this poem, paradox appears under the form of the next lyric: With
swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim (line 9, Pied Beauty, G.M. Hopkins). In
the first stanza of the poem, Hopkins details the beauty of dappled things,
introducing the idea that material variety is beauty. In the second stanza, he
proceeds to emphasize the more spiritual variety of the world. Here is where
the paradoxical features appear suggesting that in each existing element
there can be found a little of its opposite. This makes me go further with a
supposition and think of yin and yang, and of how good and evil, men and
women, beauty and ugliness cannot exist one without the other. Another
paradox is that while creation has to be dappled in order to be beautiful, the
creator does not have to obey the same natural rules He remains undappled and still beautiful.
As for the tension, I believe that it can be found in the next lines:
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
[]
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings; (lines 2-4, Pied Beauty,
G.M. Hopkins)
5 "Literary Terms and Definitions A." Literary Terms and Definitions. Web. 12 Dec.
2014.
6 "Pied Beauty: A Study Guide." Pied Beauty: A Study Guide, Web. 12 Dec. 2014.

Since tension is about balancing the literal and the metaphor, I think
that the unexpected analogy of the sky with a cow or the brilliant one that
shows how beautiful the chestnut is when fallen (having the burning color of
a fresh fire coal) are interesting examples of tension. Moreover, even the
finches' wings is a great image which strengthens the idea of diversity within
world. This creative tension turns into something that we might name wordpainting. Hopkins does no more than creating a pictorial image by means of
word7:
[] the dense texture and richness of the language dominates to such
an extent that the topic of the poem seems almost to be forgotten (James
Milroy)
In this poem, there exists ambiguity as well. The call to praise God at
the end of the poem is rather ambiguous. In the first stanza it is not, due to
the fact that it is a motivated one: Glory be to God for dappled things (first
line, Pied Beauty, G.M. Hopkins). However, if one looks at the lines before the
last call for praise, one might be confused with regard to the motivation for
praising: All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him. (second stanza, Pied Beauty, G.M. Hopkins)
So, should one praise God for his pied creation or for the fact that he
remains untouched, unchanged, but still titled enough to be beautiful and
praised? Ambiguity, in this case, indicated that both answers might be
correct.

7 "Pied Beauty": Word-painting vs. Formal Innovation?" Gerard Manley Hopkins's

"Pied Beauty": Word-painting vs. Formal Innovation? Web. 12 Dec. 2014.

In the end, there can be said that Hopkins poem is full of powerful
imagery. This makes the poet stand out in a period of literature when poetry
was more of a traditional kind, and less of an innovative one.