How wonderful yellow is.
It stands for the sun.
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
See more at Cee's Flower of the Day Challenge.
Monday Sunny Side Up
Category: Quotes
Creekside Reflections
Taking time out to reflect on the natural beauty around us is a gift that photography, if it’s done right (like Cee’s) gets you up out of your chair and outdoors exploring. Hope this weekend there are colorful spots like this in the woods or fields or gardens around you and moments of pleasant reflection.
"I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees." -- Henry David Thoreau
For Cee's Flower of the Day (FOTD) Challenge. Be sure to visit Cee's Photo Challenges for amazing photography and fun challenges.
Giddy as a Gladiolus
If a man could pass through Paradise in a dream, and have a flower presented to him as a pledge that his soul had really been there, and if he found that flower in his hand when he awake – Aye, what then?
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Common-Place Jotting: Rosetti Rhymes
Common-Place or “Locus Communis” — a place to remember
Christina Rosetti (1830-1894) is famous for “Goblin Market” and “Remember” and known for her many romantic and devotional poems. “In the Bleak Midwinter” was later set to music by Gustave Holst as was Rosetti’s “Love Came Down at Christmas” by Harold Darke.
I never knew she also wrote some children’s poetry and it was a pleasant surprise to encounter this little rhyme to teach children their colors. From The Golden Book of Poetry (1947):
ColorWhat is pink? a rose is pinkBy a fountain’s brink.What is red? a poppy’s redIn its barley bed.What is blue? the sky is blueWhere the clouds float thro’.What is white? a swan is whiteSailing in the light.What is yellow? pears are yellow,Rich and ripe and mellow.What is green? the grass is green,With small flowers between.What is violet? clouds are violetIn the summer twilight.What is orange? Why, an orange,Just an orange!
On a different tack: if only it made a difference to quarrelsome children to point out the bonds of family ought not be treated shabbily! It’s a wisdom they attain when they grow to maturity, as Rosetti writes in this little excerpt from “Goblin Market” on the strong bond between sisters:
For there is no friend like a sister
In calm or stormy weather;
To cheer one on the tedious way,
To fetch one if one goes astray,
To lift one if one totters down,
To strengthen whilst one stands.
Blossoms or Butterflies?
For Cee’s FOTD Challenge, a snowball bush tosses out a conundrum: is it blooming butterflies or are those butterflies in blossom?
Nature is the art of God.
—Dante Alghieri
Common-Place Jotting: “Unto the hert’s forest”
Common-Place or “Locus Communis” — a place to remember
Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542) died before he reached forty: a man of double lives, he was an English courtier and diplomat during the reign of Henry VIII, by whom he was imprisoned twice in the Tower of London but managed to escape execution both times. He was infamous as a rumored lover of one of the king’s many wives (Anne Boleyn) but also famous for introducing the sonnet form into English literature.
The following sonnet could be interpreted in two different ways: either the speaker must renounce his love out of fealty to his wife (Wyatt was married) or he must flee his love out of fear of the king. Either way, unattainable love is the cause of the poet’s lasting pain and his heart must go into hiding.
The Long Love that in my Thought doth Harbour Sir Thomas Wyatt
The longë love that in my thought doth harbour
And in mine hert doth keep his residence,
Into my face presseth with bold pretence
And therein campeth, spreading his banner.
She that me learneth to love and suffer
And will that my trust and lustës negligence
Be rayned by reason, shame, and reverence,
With his hardiness taketh displeasure.
Wherewithall unto the hert’s forest he fleeth,
Leaving his enterprise with pain and cry,
And there him hideth and not appeareth.
What may I do when my master feareth
But in the field with him to live and die?
For good is the life ending faithfully.
A Common-Place Jotting: Coleridge
Common-Place or “Locus Communis” — a place to remember
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (18th c.) had a “vision in a dream,” as he called it, and immediately upon waking, he wrote down the poem Kubla Khan which he said came to him fully constructed like the dream. He kept it hidden for many years, reading it in private until, at the prompting of Lord Byron, he finally published it in 1816.
Kubla Khan became, of course, one of his most famous and memorable poems. It begins by describing the mythical kingdom of Xanadu where the most fantastic pleasures of natural beauty were enjoyed. By the end of the poem we are left with same longing for Xanadu that the poet experiences, a longing to revive within ourselves such inspiration as that of “a young Abyssinian maid” as she plays on her dulcimer:
A damsel with a dulcimerIn a vision once I saw:It was an Abyssinian maidAnd on her dulcimer she played,Singing of Mount Abora.Could I revive within meHer symphony and song,To such a deep delight ’twould win me,That with music loud and long,I would build that dome in air,That sunny dome! those caves of ice!And all who heard should see them there,And all should cry, Beware! Beware!His flashing eyes, his floating hair!Weave a circle round him thrice,And close your eyes with holy dreadFor he on honey-dew hath fed,And drunk the milk of Paradise.
A Common-Place Jotting: Merchant of Venice, Act III, Scene 2
Common-Place or “Locus Communis” — a place to remember
Act III, Scene 2 of Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice enters a new arena of combat, not one of economic or social gain, but that of love, when Bassanio, a Venetian gentleman and suitor to Portia, comes to try his hand at winning her hand. Like all the rest who have already tried, he must choose the correct casket that holds the portrait of the fair Portia, or else lose all further opportunity to wed her (by the terms of her late father’s will).
But out of fear that he will fail in this endeavor, Portia, who loves him dearly, tries to dissuade him and trust to a future time. But Bassanio will not be kept from the object of his love with any further delay.
BASSANIO
Promise me life and I’ll confess the truth.
PORTIA
Well, then, confess and live.
BASSANIO“Confess and love”
Had been the very sum of my confession.
O happy torment, when my torturer
Doth teach me answers for deliverance!
But let me to my fortune and the caskets.
Continue reading “A Common-Place Jotting: Merchant of Venice, Act III, Scene 2”
A Common-Place Jotting: The Merchant of Venice, Act II, Scene 9
Common-Place or “Locus Communis” — a place to remember
In this scene from The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare has the Prince of Arragon, one of Portia’s many suitors, guess which of the three caskets (gold, silver, lead) contains her portrait. Leading the prince to them, Portia says:
Behold, there stand the caskets, noble Prince.If you choose that wherein I am contained,Straight shall our nuptial rites be solemnized.But if you fail, without more speech, my lord,You must be gone from hence immediately.
After contemplating all three, the Prince of Arragon chooses the silver chest:
I will not choose what many men desireBecause I will not jump with common spiritsAnd rank me with the barbarous multitudes.Why then, to thee, thou silver treasure house.Tell me once more what title thou dost bear.“Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.”And well said too—for who shall go aboutTo cozen fortune and be honorableWithout the stamp of merit? Let none presumeTo wear an undeservèd dignity.Oh, that estates, degrees and officesWere not derived corruptly, and that clear honorWere purchased by the merit of the wearer!How many then should cover that stand bare!How many be commanded that command!How much low peasantry would then be gleanedFrom the true seed of honor! And how much honorPicked from the chaff and ruin of the timesTo be new varnished! Well, but to my choice.“Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.”I will assume desert.—Give me a key for this,And instantly unlock my fortunes here.
Opening the casket, he finds not Portia’s portrait, but a picture of a fool’s head and a letter which reads:
“The fire seven times tried this,Seven times tried that judgment is,That did never choose amiss.Some there be that shadows kiss.Such have but a shadow’s bliss.There be fools alive, iwis,Silvered o’er—and so was this.Take what wife you will to bed,I will ever be your head.So be gone. You are sped.Still more fool I shall appear”By the time I linger here.With one fool’s head I came to woo,But I go away with two.—Sweet, adieu. I’ll keep my oathPatiently to bear my wroth.”
— William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act II, Scene 9
A Common-Place Jotting: Merchant of Venice, Act II, Scene 7
Common-Place or “Locus Communis” — a place to remember
In this Act II, Scene 7 of The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare has the Prince of Morocco, one of Portia’s many suitors, guess which of the three boxes (gold, silver, lead) contains her portrait. “The one of them contains my picture, Prince,” Portia tells him. “If you choose that, then I am yours withal.”
On the gold box are inscribed the words: “Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.” Placing his worth as high as that of Portia’s, he chooses the gold box and finds within this note written by her father:
All that glisters is not gold—
Often have you heard that told.
Many a man his life hath sold
But my outside to behold.
Gilded tombs do worms enfold.
Had you been as wise as bold,
Young in limbs, in judgment old,
Your answer had not been inscrolled
Fare you well. Your suit is cold—
*glisters is the 17th c. synonym of glitters
This Jolly Beggar 