Dappled Things of Fall

We're enjoying fall! These last couple of weeks have given us sunny, warm days and cool nights. The word "dappled" has come to mind as I see lawns dappled with dropped leaves...

Day lily leaves dappled with yellow...

Leaves themselves mottled with decay...

fruit dappled with ripeness and insect spots...

and sky dappled with clouds and green and yellow leaves.

All of that reminded me of Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem, which you can hear here:

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.