This painting is based on The Lady of Shalott by Alfred Lord Tennyson.
It illustrates the lines:
There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott.
Inspired by Robert Herrick's "To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time" as excerpted here:
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may
Old time is still a-flying;
And the same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.
7 comments:
i would have killed myself if i were made to look at those paintings for more than half a second. and i didn't think there could be any writing more painful than "canterbury tales" but you just gave two examples that won that contest.
To each his own.
You're right. I love this post - poems and paintings.
I adore the pre-raphaelites - so many stories, they were the TV of their time, each painting a narrative - like Death of Chatterton - and Dante Rossetti throwing all his poems in what's her name's casket . . . and then 5 yrs later he decides that was a bit rash and digs her up to get his poems back . . .
T,
Here's a link to William Holman Hunt's Lady of Shallott:
http://faculty.stonehill.edu/geverett/rb/huntlady.htm If you don't know this painting, I hope you love it!I have a really wonderful reproduction of it, and, I should hang it in my office, but it would probably clash with all the leopard print. M. Ru Pere, I think the casket lady was Lizzie Siddall...
i like a good poem......it's relaxing and lasting. it seems to slow down the pace from the hectic "here today, gone tomorrow" pop culture world............that said, interesting contrast between the poem verses and freddy kruger. ........................gather ye rosebuds while ye may, old time it is a-flying for freddy kruger comes your way and tonght YOU could be dying........a classic!
Cheddar's Grandfather--welcome!
M. Ru--me too.
Kath--of course we love the pre-Raphaelites, with their redheads.
Jennifer--thanks for the link.
Minus and her friend Biggy, who agreed with her verbally--I have something you two can paint.
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