World Class Poetry Blog

Curtal Poem: Unique Among Sonnets - Here’s Why
14 April 2008, the poet @ 8:07 pm

In honor of National Poetry Month we are posting one religious poem per day. We’ve already posted a Gerard Manley Hopkins poem - “God’s Grandeur,” a sonnet. Tonight we’ve got another Hopkins poem, but this time the poem is a shortened, or curtailed, sonnet. Hopkins called it a curtal.

The curtal has only 10 lines instead of 14 and the rhyme scheme is ABCABC ABCAc. You’ll see it in action below. The poem is “Pied Beauty”:

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 trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.	

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.

Again, Gerard Manley Hopkins uses his sprung rhythm to create a unique form and pace throughout the poem. You see the beauty in the language as much as in the music. “Pied Beauty” is a gift, a curtal, from one of the best religious poets in history.

4 Comments a “Curtal Poem: Unique Among Sonnets - Here’s Why”

1. Rachel Fox — April 16, 2008 @ 3:56 am
   

   Some lovely words in here. I like ‘dappled’ (don’t hear that much these days…well, I don’t), ‘couple-colour’, ’stipple’ and ‘freckled’…some lovely sounds to go with the pictures. ‘Rose-moles’ is the only thing I stumble on…just because I can’t picture what that is. Must go and look at a trout!
   Rachel Fox
   Montrose, Scotland..saw you on Jim Murdoch’s best of blogs..

2. the poet — April 16, 2008 @ 9:40 pm
   

   Thanks for stopping by Rachel! Hope you come back for more.

3. janetleigh — April 17, 2008 @ 1:55 am
   

   Absolutely adore this poem, Allen. Thank you for sharing this one with your readers. The form and structure of the poem gives heft to each and every word, up to it’s conclusion causing the last 2 words to be read reverentially. For this reader, anyway. I’m still tingling from its vibrations, Sir!

4. the poet — April 17, 2008 @ 4:32 pm
   

   I’m glad you like it, Janet. I agree with your assessment of form and structure. That’s one of the great things Hopkins can teach us today. Every single word is important.

Submit a comment

Name

E-mail (not published)

Website URL

Enable CommentLuv which will try and parse your last blog post, please be patient while it finds it for you

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail