No.19

EVERYONE SANG
Siegfried Sassoon 1886-1967

Everyone suddenly burst out singing;
And I was filled with such delight
As prisoned birds must find in freedom,
Winging wildly across the white
Orchards and dark-green fields; on - on - and out of sight.

Everyone's voice was suddenly lifted;
And beauty came like the setting sun:
My heart was shaken with tears; and horror
Drifted away ... O, but Everyone
Was a bird; and the song was wordless; the singing will never be done.

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WINDING THE SKEIN
c.1878
Lord Frederic Leighton
1830-96
Nationality - English

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THREE POEMS BY THOMAS HARDY

LYING AWAKE

You, Morningtide Star, now are steady-eyed, over the east,
I know it as if I saw you;
You, Beeches, engrave on the sky your thin twigs, even the least;
Had I paper and pencil I'd draw you.
You, Meadow, are white with your counterpane cover of dew,
I see it as if I were there;
You, Churchyard, are lightening faint from the shade of the yew,
The names creeping out everywhere.

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THE GLIMPSE

She sped through the door
And, following in haste,
And stirred to the core,
I entered hot-faced;
But I could not find her,
No sign was behind her.
"Where is she?" I said:
- "Who?" they asked that sat there;
"Not a soul's come in sight."
- "A maid with red hair."
- "Ah." They paled. "She is dead.
People see her at night,
But you are the first
On whom she has burst
In the keen common light."

It was ages ago,
When I was quite strong:
I have waited since, - O,
I have waited so long!
- Yea, I set me to own
The house, where now lone
I dwell in void rooms
Booming hollow as tombs!
But I never come near her,
Though nightly I hear her.
And my cheek has grown thin
And my hair has grown grey
With this waiting therein;
But she still keeps away!


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MAD JUDY

When the hamlet hailed a birth
Judy used to cry:
When she heard our christening mirth
She would kneel and sigh.
She was crazed, we knew, and we
Humoured her infirmity.

When the daughters and the sons
Gathered them to wed,
And we like-intending ones
Danced till dawn was red,
She would rock and mutter, "More
Comers to this stony shore!"

When old Headsman Death laid hands
On a babe or twain,
She would feast, and by her brands
Sing her songs again.
What she liked we let her do,
Judy was insane, we knew.

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PORTRAIT OF COUNTESS KAROLY
1861
Gustave Courbet 
1819-77
Nationality - French

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The picture below may be familiar to older folks. I remember that the character Shock-headed Peter appeared in an old Chatterbox Annual which had belonged to one of my father’s siblings.

Created by Heinrich Hoffman, Der Struwwelpeter consisted of ten German stories, each with a moral.

See Slovenly Peter! Here he stands, 

With his dirty hair and hands. 

See! his nails are never cut; 

They are grimed as black as soot; 

No water for many weeks, 

Has been near his cheeks; 

And the sloven, I declare, 

Not once this year has combed his hair! 

Anything to me is sweeter 

Than to see shock-headed Peter. 

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LAKE SUWA IN SHINANO PROVINCE

Katsushika Hokusai

1760-1849

Nationality - Japanese

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THE OLD WOMAN
 Joseph Campbell 
(Seosamh MacCathmhaoil)
1879-1944

As a white candle  
  In a holy place,  
So is the beauty  
  Of an aged face.  
  
As the spent radiance     
Of the winter sun,  
So is a woman  
  With her travail done,  
  
Her brood gone from her,  
  And her thoughts as still   
As the waters  
Under a ruined mill.  

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WOMAN WITH A PARASOL IN A GARDEN
1875
Pierre-Auguste Renoir 1841-1919
Nationality - French

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UPDATED EVERY WEEK END

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