Imagery and symbolism in Pied Beauty

For Hopkins, there is remarkably little imagery (as opposed to images) in the poem. The details are on the whole concrete and actual:

  • the chestnut is described as ‘Fresh-firecoal', a detail Hopkins recorded in his journal earlier: ‘Chestnuts as bright as firecoals'. The simile in the journal here becomes metaphorical
  • ‘rose-moles' is another compound adjective to describe the markings on trout.
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