Showing posts with label paintings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paintings. Show all posts

Monday, October 1, 2012

Two Lovers by George Eliot

{Poem of the Day}

Mary Ann Evans was an important woman writer from the Victorian era. She is mostly known as George Eliot, a male pen name so that her writing would be taken more seriously. Born in Warwickshire, the west midland region of England, this very successful chick of lit wrote poetry, short stories and novels. She was also an assistant editor and translator. Since my last {Poem of the Day} from Eliot was quite serious, here's a poem of hers that celebrates love.

"Starry Night Over the Rhone" by Vincent Van Gogh. Print from $28 on  iCanvas Art

"Two Lovers"
By George Eliot (1819 - 1880)

Two lovers by a moss-grown spring:
They leaned soft cheeks together there,
Mingled the dark and sunny hair,
And heard the wooing thrushes sing.
O budding time!
O love's blest prime!

Two wedded from the portal stept:
The bells made happy carolings,
The air was soft as fanning wings,
White petals on the pathway slept.
O pure-eyed bride!
O tender pride!

Two faces o'er a cradle bent:
Two hands above the head were locked:
These pressed each other while they rocked,
Those watched a life that love had sent.
O solemn hour!
O hidden power!

Two parents by the evening fire:
The red light fell about their knees
On heads that rose by slow degrees
Like buds upon the lily spire.
O patient life!
O tender strife!

The two still sat together there,
The red light shone about their knees;
But all the heads by slow degrees
Had gone and left that lonely pair.
O voyage fast! 
O vanished past!

The red light shone upon the floor
And made the space between them wide;
They drew their chairs up side by side,
Their pale cheeks joined, and said, "Once more!"
O memories!
O past that is!


Learn more about George Eliot here

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

7 Great Quotes From The Legend of Sleepy Hallow by Washington Irving

{More evidence that men do not understand women}
"I profess not to know how women's hearts are wooed and won. To me they have always been matters of riddle and admiration."

{On teaching}
"On a fine autumnal afternoon, Ichabod, in pensive mood, sat enthroned on the lofty stool from whence he usually watched all the concerns of his little literary realm."

{Get in the mood for Fall}
"The forests had put on their sober brown and yellow, while some trees of the tenderer kind had been nipped by the frosts into brilliant dyes of orange, purple, and scarlet."
Buy a print of "Autumn Tree" by Angela Taratula here
{Get in the mood for Fall foods}
"As Ichabod jogged slowly on his way, his eye, ever open to every symptom of culinary abundance, ranged with delight over the treasures of jolly autumn."
This beautiful fall feast is from here
{Who knew ghosts were so lonely?}
"There is no encouragement for ghosts in most of our villages, for they have scarcely had time to finish their first nap and turn themselves in their graves, before their surviving friends have traveled away from the neighborhood; so that when they turn out at night to walk their rounds, they have no acquaintance left to call upon."

{Great quote to go on a painting of a haunting scene}
"There was a contagion in the very air that blew from that haunted region; it breathed forth an atmosphere of dreams and fancies infecting all the land."
This haunted painting is from here
{Rough riders}
"That, therefore, he that runs races with goblin troopers is likely to have a rough riding of it."
Just for fun!

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Norah by Zoe Akins

{Poem of the Day}
This poet and I share the same birthday! And apparently we both want to run wild in the sea. Akins wrote both poetry and plays. The American writer is mostly known for her plays, "Papa" and "Foot-Loose." Not the Kevin Bacon kind of Foot Loose. I know. Bummer. No matter, I particularly like this poem below because I read it as a wild woman who loves a straight-path man. He may take his laid-down path whenever he wants, but her path is out into a vast unknown! (Today that is referred to as your 20s.)

More info on this beautiful painting here


"Norah"
by Zoe Akins (1886 - 1958)


I knew his house by the poplar-trees,
Green and silvery in the breeze;

"A heaven-high hedge," were the words he said,
"And holly-hocks, pink and white and red. . . ."

It seemed so far from McChesney's Hall -
Where first he told me about it all.

A long path runs inside from the gate, -
He still can take it, early or late;

But where in the world is the path for me
Except the river that runs to the sea!

Learn more about Zoe Akins here.