Alan Moore on Austin Osman Spare

Quite interesting, this. Alan Moore is pretty much responsible for revitalizing comics/graphic novels as an art form.

LIBERTY LEADING THE PEOPLE, by Eugene Delacroix

c. 1830, the Louvre, Paris. Rise up and cast off your chains!

THE RETURN OF PERSEPHONE, by Lord Frederick Leighton

c. 1891

THE NIGHT JOURNEY

The Prophet Muhammad carried to Jerusalem by angels.

PARVATI

A modern print.

LET'S NOT REMAIN ADORING, by Yunus Emre

Let's not remain adoring,
Come, let's go to the Friend, my soul.
Let's not die longing, imploring,
Come, let's go to the Friend, my soul.

Let's leave this city and this land:
Let's weep, shedding tears for the Friend,
With the cup of love's wine in hand;
Come, let's go to the Friend, my soul.

From this world we'd better be gone;
Why be duped, it couldn't live on.
Let's not be split while we are one;
Come, let's go to the Friend, my soul.

As I take the road, be my guide;
Let's set out for the Loved One's side.
Let's not look behind or ahead;
Come, let's go to the Friend, my soul.

Before the news of death arrives,
Before my marked soul vainly strives,
Before Gabriel routs our lives,
Come, let's go to the Friend, my soul.

Let's go to the truly sacred;
Let's ask for the news about God,
And taking Yunus on the road;
Come, let's go to the Friend, my soul.

- Yunus Emre (1238-1321) translated from the Turkish by Talat S. Halman

VIRGIN AND CHILD, by Masaccio

c. early 15th century.

ISHAK PASHA PALACE - Dogubeyazit, Turkey

c. 1784. A masterpiece of Ottoman architecture. Second photo by Rodrigo Magrini Rossi Cunha.

THE BEAUTIFUL LADY, by Arthur Hughs

An engraving to illustrate George MacDonald's book, At the Back of the North Wind. Image scanned by George P. Landow at http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/hughes/1.html

TITIAN PREPARING TO MAKE HIS FIRST ESSAY IN COLOURING, by William Dyce

Edwin Muir - One Foot in Eden

One foot in Eden still, I stand
And look across the other land.
The world's great day is growing late,
Yet strange these fields that we have planted
So long with crops of love and hate.
Time's handiworks by time are haunted,
And nothing now can separate
The corn and tares compactly grown.
The armorial weed in stillness bound
About the stalk; these are our own.
Evil and good stand thick around
In fields of charity and sin
Where we shall lead our harvest in.

Yet still from Eden springs the root
As clean as on the starting day.
Time takes the foliage and the fruit
And burns the archetypal leaf
To shapes of terror and of grief
Scattered along the winter way.
But famished field and blackened tree
Bear flowers in Eden never known.
Blossoms of grief and charity
Bloom in these darkened fields alone.
What had Eden ever to say
Of hope and faith and pity and love
Until was buried all its day
And memory found its treasure trove?
Strange blessings never in Paradise
Fall from these beclouded skies.


(One of my absolute favorite poems)

THE FIGHT ON LEXINGTON COMMON, by Howard Pyle

Now was this a smart thing to do?

SUMMER DAY

Reading in the heat of noon
I grow sleepy, put my head
On my arms and fall asleep.
I forget to close the window
And the warm air blows in
And covers my body with petals.

- by Yuan Mei (1716-1797) translation by Kenneth Rexroth

SUMMER MOUNTAINS