A Wood-Path, by Bliss Carman

At evening and at morning
By an enchanted way
I walk the world in wonder,
And have no word to say.

It is the path we traversed
One twilight, thou and I;
Thy beauty all a rapture,
My spirit all a cry.

The red leaves fall upon it,
The moon and mist and rain,
But not the magic footfall
That made its meaning plain.

Midst the Wild Carpathians

Forests Everywhere - painting by Tatiana Iliina 

"...Before us lies the valley of the Drave, one of those endless
wildernesses where even the wild beast loses its way. Forests
everywhere, maples and aspens a thousand years old, with their roots
under water; magnificent morasses the surface of which is covered, not
with reeds and water-lilies, but with gigantic trees, from the dependent
branches of which the vivifying waters force fresh roots. Here the swan
builds her nest; here too dwell the royal heron, the blind crow, the
golden plover..."

 -Maurus Jokai, Midst the Wild Carpathians, 1894 (English ed.)

Strings and Stately Chords

"...at last one morning the diffident and delaying dog-rose stepped delicately on the stage, and one knew, as if string-music had announced it in stately chords that strayed into a gavotte, that June at last was here. One member of the company was still awaited; the shepherd-boy for the nymphs to woo, the knight for whom the ladies waited at the window, the prince that was to kiss the sleeping summer back to life and love..."

-Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

Proserpine

"...Scene; a beautiful plain, shadowed on one side by an overhanging rock, on the other a chesnut wood. Etna at a distance. Enter Ceres, Proserpine, Ino and Eunoe. Pros. Dear Mother, leave me not! I love to rest Under the shadow of that hanging cave And listen to your tales. Your Proserpine Entreats you stay; sit on this shady bank, And as I twine a wreathe tell once again The combat of the Titans and the Gods; Or how the Python fell beneath the dart Of dread Apollo; or of Daphne’s change,— That coyest Grecian maid, whose pointed leaves Now shade her lover’s brow. And I the while Gathering the starry flowers of this fair plain Will weave a chaplet, Mother, for thy hair. But without thee, the plain I think is vacant, Its blossoms fade,—its tall fresh grasses droop, Nodding their heads like dull things half asleep;— Go not, dear Mother, from your Proserpine..."

-Mary Shelley, Proserpine




Not sure if Mary Shelley's Proserpine has been performed. (The work was "discovered" after her death) Below is the Ouverture of Jean Baptiste Lully's "Proserpine", from 1680.

Mighty Harmonies

 

Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:
What if my leaves are falling like its own!
The tumult of thy mighty harmonies

-Percy Shelley

Alluring Song

"...The pupils of her eyes were deep and liquid; her cheeks
showed a flush of red. Her lips were soft—like a beast's—large,
sensuous and rosy. She walked slowly, moving her long straight legs
evenly, and slightly swaying from her hips….

...She joined the maidens on the river slope.

They were singing their mysterious, alluring and illusive songs...."

-Boris Pilniak, A Year of Their Lives

Cry Me a River

A Hardened Case

"...A hardened case, accustomed to long trysts, to anxiety, and fog, and cold, if only his mistress came at last. Foolish lover! Fogs last until the spring; there is also snow and rain, no comfort anywhere; gnawing fear if you bring her out, gnawing fear if you bid her stay at home!..."

-John Galsworthy, Forsyte Saga

Birch in White Satin

 

Just released this limited edition giclee of a painting I did two or three years ago.  Below, the 1967 classic, Nights in White Satin, by the Moody Blues...

You'll Never Walk Alone

When you walk through a storm
Keep your chin up high
And don't be afraid of the dark.
At he end of the storm
Is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark.

Walk on through the wind,
Walk on through the rain,
Tho' your dreams be tossed and blown.Walk on, walk on
With hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone,
You'll never walk alone.

-Rodgers & Hammerstein

Everlasting Youth

"...He was not born for age'. Ah no,
For everlasting youth is his!
Part of the lyric of the earth
With spring and leaf and blade he is...."
-Bliss Carman, A Seamark, 1895

Spirit Moved

"...  What, though we never silence broke,
  Our eyes a sweeter language spoke;
  The tongue in flattering falsehood deals,
  And tells a tale it never feels:
  Deceit, the guilty lips impart,
  And hush the mandates of the heart;
  But soul's interpreters, the eyes,
  Spurn such restraint, and scorn disguise.
  As thus our glances oft convers'd,
  And all our bosoms felt rehears'd,
  No spirit, from within, reprov'd us,
  Say rather, "'twas the spirit mov'd us."..."

-George Gordon, Lord Byron, To a Beautiful Quaker

Past Pathways

"...Whichever way we passed before,
It would matter not which star to follow,
If we could wander on forever more,
The sky above, the path below..."
-Offraod Artist

Fabled Years

"...The road whereby you too must come,
In the unvexed and fabled years
Into the country of your dream,
With all your knowledge in arrears!..."


-Bliss Carman, A Seamark

Paleness & Bloom

"...I marvel how Nature could ever find space
For so many strange contrasts in one human face:
There's thought and no thought, and there's paleness and bloom
And bustle and sluggishness, pleasure and gloom..."

-William Wordsworth, A Character, 1800