Poetry Wednesday; now known as P. P. P.P. (love)

P. P. P. P.

Welcome to something new. I find I have an extreme lack of time during this Pre-Christmas period but, I think I have found a solution, and this is it. Introducing the four in one blog;

 P. P.P. P.

And this is what it stands for; P is for POETRY, (or Poetry Wednesday), P is for PHOTO, (or Foto Friday), P is for PERFORMANCE, (or Song Saturday) and last but by no means least P is for PAINTING, (or Art Sunday).
This is how it’s going to be until Christmas, my economical four in one P. P. P. P.  Take your time and savour this, it’s four in one and has to last all week.

This weeks topic is

LOVE

P. IS FOR POETRY.

The greatest love poem of all time
Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett, an English poet, born in 1806 at Coxhoe Hall, Durham, England. She was oldest of twelve children and the first member of her family to be born in England for over 200 years. Her family were Creole and had lived in Jamaica for centuries farming their sugar plantations and owning slaves. Elizabeth and her siblings were well educated and well read, she began writing poetry as a child. By the age of 14 Elizabeth developed a lung problem, possibly TB, which stayed with her for the rest of her life and just a year later, aged 15 she suffered a spinal injury while saddling her pony. She became Dispite poor health she developed a great love of when she was fifteen, Elizabeth also suffered a spinal injury. She developed a passion for classical Greek and Hebrew writings and also for the work of church missionaries. In 1826 Elizabeth anonymously published her collection An Essay on Mind and Other Poems. Centuries before her the Renaissance poets excelled in love sonnets, especially Shakespeare who compared his love to a rose, a summer's day, perfume, snow, and various species of birds. Romantic love poems are some of the most enduring, and oft-repeated, poems ever written in the English language.  The first line of this poem is so well-known it is considered the classic love poem of all time.


How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

LOVE

P. IS FOR PHOTO.

These are two photos I took at the wedding of my niece a couple of years ago.


 The first is of her showered in confetti with a look of pure joy on her face.

The second is of her wearing the grooms jacket over her wedding dress. I have always thought this is a lovely photo. The wedding was in March and it was quite a cold day, we were all outside for the official photographs and she was ‘in-between shots’ she was standing outside, in the cold, waiting for the photographer to finish and she was shivering. The groom just took of his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders.

LOVE

P. IS FOR PERFORMANCE.

John Lennon
Grow old with me

Origins and Inspiration
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grow_Old_With_Me

The song was inspired from two different sources: from a poem penned by Robert Browning, entitled Rabbi Ben Ezra, and a song by Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono, entitled "Let Me Count the Ways" (which in turn had been inspired from a poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning).
Lennon and Ono had for some time admired the poetry of Robert and Elizabeth Browning, and the two songs were purposely written with the couple in mind.
Ono woke up one morning in the summer of 1980 with the music of "Let Me Count The Ways" in her head and promptly rang Lennon in Bermuda to play it for him. Lennon loved the song and Ono then suggested to him that he should write a Robert Browning piece to accompany it. That afternoon, John was watching TV when a film came on which had the poem "Rabbi Ben Ezra" by Robert Browning in it. Inspired by this turn of events, Lennon wrote "Grow Old With Me" as an answer to Ono's song, and rang her back to play it to her over the phone.

LOVE

P. IS FOR PAINTING.

Frederic Lord Leighton
British, 1830 - 1896
The Painter's Honeymoon
Date: circa 1864
The Painter's Honeymoon by Leighton


Frederic Lord Leighton (1830-1896).

Frederic Lord Leighton was a major influence in the classical revival in late Victorian period. He was born in England in 1830 and spent his childhood travelling around Europe with his family. At the age of sixteen his family settled in Munich am Main, Germany and Leighton enrolled at the Stadelsches Kunstinstitut. He studied under the Nazarene artist Edward von Steinle. The Nazarene style, which took its influence from early Renaissance painters, heavily influenced Leightons early work but his later work became more decorative, concentrating on design and colour. The couple in Frederic Lord Leighton's "The Painter's Honeymoon, 1864" are as close as two people can get. Cheek to cheek, the honeymooners spoon over the painter's newest creation. Note the beautiful detail of light in the folds of the woman's dress and in her hair. The body language in this painting portray the utter love each has for the other, they are oblivious to the world around them and are totally engrossed in each other.