Landscape (Symbol)
In “Pied Beauty,” the variegated beauty of the landscape described by the poet figures, or so he argues, as evidence of God’s design. In its specificity, the infinite permutations of its details, one catches a glimpse of the infinite itself, i.e., of God the creator. In this way, the poem becomes a kind of prayer (as evidenced by the clear influence of Biblical psalms).
Color (Motif)
The title of “Pied Beauty” itself announces color, in particular patterns composed of color, as a key motif for the poem, as “pied” is more or less synonymous with multicolored. Throughout the poem, the poet chooses words connoting or denoting color ("dappled," "stipple," "freckled") when describing both the variegated patterns he finds in nature and their correspondences, e.g., “skies of couple-color as a brinded cow.” Patterns in color come to seem a kind of figure for the form of harmony, of beauty, that Hopkins perceives; harmony, beauty, patterns, and ultimately unity are made possible by variation, rather than uniformity.
