Comparing and contrasting the Theme and imagery of the poems Pied Beauty by Gerard Manley Hopkins and Design by Robert Frost

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Contrast and comparison of imagery and themes.
Imagery involves the use figurative language in place of actions, objects and ideas in a way that is appealing to our senses. Imagery helps one to create a visual representation of an idea in mind. As such, to have excellent imaging, figures of speech such as simile, personification, metaphor and onomatopoeia needed. Themes are the main ideas or the underlying meanings of literary works that might be stated either directly or indirectly. There are two types of items that are the major themes and minor issues. Major issues are the ideas that writers repeat in their work, making them the most central ideas in literary works. Small items are those ideas that appear briefly and give way to other minor themes in literary work. As such this essay will look into the differences and the similarities of the topics from the two poems and the imagery displayed in the poem.
In both poems, imagery is exploited by the poets. Through the two poems, there is the use of the two colours create an image to us of the occurrences of the situations in the poem. The two colour in the poem design is black and white. Black creates to us an image of purity of both the spider and the flower. More importantly, it explains to us why with so much pureness the spider had to feed for the month, bringing about the aspect of the dark colour in the story which was the death of the moth. On the other poem Pied Beauty, the poet uses tow colours of the sky and comparing it to the branded cow to create an image of the appearance of the situation.

Additionally, both poets create pictures in the mind of the listener with the line ‘rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim…’ This line describes the colored dots scattered on the trout that shine in the sun. Frost sets the scene of the poem in the listener’s mind in the first stanza by stating “I found a dimpled spider, fat and white.” This line makes an exact portrayal of the scene in the listener’s mind. The poets take us through their experiences by helping us to see what they were going through in a real sense. Especially the imagery helps us to understand the poem even better as the small images created in the poem are the platform the various images of the actual nature of the poem.
Imagery is used in Pied the beauty to describe to us the beauty of nature while in the design imagery has been used to make us fathom the cruelty of the world and the tiny things that are beyond our power (“Pied Beauty by Gerard Manley Hopkins : The Poetry Foundation”). First in design poem imagery produced in the seventh line of the poem “A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth”. The stanza represents the image of the light and the foaming that was at the mouth as the spider fed on the moth. Moreover, the poet also uses “Assorted characters of death and blight. Moreover, just like the ingredients of a witches’ broth” to illustrate to us that the three things, that are the spider, the moth and the flower had to come together so as to bring about the aspect of death.
The small scene demonstrated was a representative of the bigger picture of the song. In the poem, Pied Beauty imagery is brought up in line three “For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;” the line helps in creating an image of the colored dots that are present on the side of the sides of the swimming trout. Consequently, line five ‘Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;’ Creates an image of the farming including the field, the sheepfold and the plough all of which are tools and requirements associated with agriculture.
In both the poem, the speakers believe in the existence of a supernatural being God. More importantly, they do believe that God has control over the things that happened to the universe. Moreover, they give God the credential as being the supernatural being in the word, and they are aware that he can easily make things happen. Secondly, both poems believe in fate in the universe there two speakers are sure that the things they view, perceive and go through no matter how good there are or bad they are because of God.
In the poem Pied Beauty, the natural beings are believed to exist in the world as the whole poem talks about the celebration of the physical creation by expression through praise and glorification. However, in the poem of design the supernatural powers that exist, there is no belief in the physical power that exist which in this case is God. In Pied Beauty, the speaker praises God for the skies as seen from the first stanza to the third stanza. “Glory be to God for dappled things –  For skies of couple-color as a brinded cow;   For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; “ Glory be to God for dappled things – For skies of couple-color as a brinded cow. The speaker is fully aware of the existence of God and the control that he has over the nature such that all the happening of the environment is taking place are because of his power. The speaker is in not in doubt of the powers of God. On the case of design the speaker though is aware of the existence of the supernatural powers, he is not sure whether it is the work of God or whether the claims were just a superstition (“Design by Robert Frost: Summary, Theme & Analysis – Video & Lesson Transcript”). Secondly, the there is a difference in the two poem themes regarding the way they view fate or the happening of the world. In the poem Pied Beauty, the speaker is pleased with the way the universe is beautiful, he believes that the world did not just come up with fate but was a doing of God. The speaker praises God and the control that he has over the world and the natural diversity regardless of the effect on the human. While in the poem of design the speaker does not believe in fate. The speaker is fully aware of the control that God has over the world but does not understand God.
In conclusion, the poems are unique regarding the deeper meaning of each of the each one of them as the poem are just a microscopic view of the bigger picture of the poem. As such, the theme of supernatural beings and the idea of fate are clearly depicted in the poem but they do differ greatly from one another. Imagery, on the other hand, is used to give us a better understanding of the poem. Although both poets utilize imagery, the imagery in the poem vary.
Works Cited
“Design by Robert Frost: Summary, Theme & Analysis – Video & Lesson Transcript.” Study.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2015.
“Pied Beauty by Gerard Manley Hopkins : The Poetry Foundation.” Poetry Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2015.