Inscape is Gerard Manley Hopkins's term for the distinctive inner design or essential character that makes one thing unlike any other. A poet using the idea of inscape pays close attention to a thing's particular shape, texture, motion, and sound in order to reveal its unique identity rather than a general description.
Hopkins often linked inscape with instress, the energy that allows a reader or observer to perceive that hidden pattern.
Example
The sycamore leans with silver elbows,
its bark a map of winter's handwriting;
the redbird flashes once, and no other red
could hold that quick, bright curve of fire.