How we cite our quotes: (line)
Quote #1
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; (line 2)
The sky is "couple-colour" when filled with clouds, and we all know that clouds don't like to stay in one place. When it comes to the sky, the only thing you can count on is eternal variation.
Quote #2
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; (line 3)
Though the "rose-moles" stay in one place on the trout's body, the trout themselves do not. Why else would Hopkins include the redundant information that trout are swimmers, unless he wanted to bring special attention to their restless motion.
Quote #3
All things counter, original, spare, strange; (line 7)
Nature constantly produces new forms, which is why the natural world has so many unique individuals. The speaker values singular, irreducible things over general categories.
Quote #4
Whatever is fickle, (line 8)
"Fickle" is not used in a negative sense, as you might use it to describe someone who is your friend one day and not the next. "Fickle" just means "changeable" or "transient," and it is true of everything in nature. According to "Pied Beauty," God is the only thing that remains unchanged.
Quote #5
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: (line 10)
Hopkins compares the beauty of God, which he considers simple, perfect, and unchangeable, to the complex and shifting beauty of the world. The question of the nature or character of God is a complicated one in Christian thought. According to Aristotle, who inspired a lot of Catholic thought, God is the "unmoved mover" who brings change to the world while remaining always and forever the same.