Poetry Wednesday; Nest Eggs, Robert Louis Stevenson

    Poetry Wednesday; remaining with the seasonal subject of EGGS

Nest Eggs
By Robert Louis Stevenson
Illustrated by Myrtle Sheldon
From 'A Childs Garden Verse'. 

Birds all the summer day
    Flutter and quarrel
Here in the arbour-like
    Tent of the laurel.

Here in the fork
    The brown nest is seated;
For little blue eggs
    The mother keeps heated.

While we stand watching her
    Staring like gabies,
Safe in each egg are the
    Bird's little babies.

Soon the frail eggs they shall
    Chip, and upspringing
Make all the April woods
    Merry with singing.

Younger than we are,
    O children, and frailer,
Soon in the blue air they'll be,
    Singer and sailor.

We, so much older,
    Taller and stronger,
We shall look down on the
    Birdies no longer.

They shall go flying
    With musical speeches
High overhead in the
    Tops of the beeches.

In spite of our wisdom
    And sensible talking,
We on our feet must go
    Plodding and walking.

Song saturday, music from the past

Easter/ Ostara/ Eostre; Music, Art and a little info for the holiday weekend.

Taken from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%92ostre

Eostre

Old English Ēostre (also Ēastre) and Old High German Ôstarâ are the names of a  Germanic goddess whose Anglo-Saxon month, Ēostur-monath, has given its name to the Christian festival of Easter. Eostre is attested only by Bede, in his 8th century work De temporum ratione, where he states that Ēostur-monath was the equivalent to the month of April, and that feasts held in her honor during Ēostur-monath had died out by the time of his writing, replaced by the "Paschal month."This goddess is responsible for the easter bunny and easter eggs, both related to spring, fertility and the changing seasons.

Above; Ostara (1884) by Johannes Gehrts. The goddess flies through the heavens surrounded by Roman-inspired putti, beams of light, and animals. Germanic people look up at the goddess from the realm below.

Above; Eástre (1909) by Jacques Reich. Directly derived from Gehrts' image (above), with the Germanic worshipers replaced by a picturesque landscape.

Taken from
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_William_Waterhouse

John William Waterhouse

John William Waterhouse (6 April 1849 — 10 February 1917) was an English Pre-Raphaelite painter  who is most famous for his paintings of female characters from Greek and Arthurian mythology. He paintings were also full of images of spring and celtic symbolism.


Waterhouse was one of the final Pre-Raphaelite artists, being most productive in the latter decades of the 19th century and early decades of the 20th, long after the era of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Because of this, he has been referred to as "the modern Pre-Raphaelite", and incorporated techniques borrowed from the French Impressionists into his work.
And to finish, music that feels like spring, Jethrotull and Bouree , then and now; 

 

Poetry wednesday; If I were a bear..........

I am so cold, it shouldn't be this cold, wet or windy in April........................

If I were a bear,
And a big bear too,
I shouldn't much care
If it froze or snew;
I shouldn't much mind
If it snowed or friz--
I'd be all fur-lined
With a coat like his!

For i'd have fur boots and a brown fur wrap,
And brown fur knickers and a big fur cap.
I'd have a fur muffle-ruff to cover my jaws.

And brown fur mittens on my big brown paws.
With a big brown furry-down up to my head,
I'd sleep all the winter in a big fur bed.

OMG.... it's 1.30 in the morning and I've just been woken up by howling winds. I looked outside and there is a blizzard........snow swirling every where and it's so cold. I can feel the icy wind under doors and windows..........and my double glazing is quite good so what on earth must it be like outside. It's almost April ..wtf is going on????

Mary Black, singer songwriter

Clockwork Quartet, a strange musical experience

http://www.clockworkquartet.com/

It’s strangely reminiscent of something vaguely gothic. Also uniquely entertaining, it’s burlesque reinvented.

This is what they say about themselves on facebook;

From their East London warehouse, a coterie of young musicians and artists have grabbed the attention of the previously US-centric Steampunk scene. No longer beholden to the traditional media industry, the internet generation have harnessed the hardware, software and distribution channels they grew up with to give birth to a new culture – the first truly indigenous folk culture of the internet. Steampunk is an aesthetic of the mechanical inventions of the industrial revolution, the last great period of technological upheaval. The Steampunk look has been adopted by a rising counterculture whose ideals echo punk-inspired self reliance and anti-establishment sentiments, but with nihilism replaced by an optimism about human potential. The past year has seen a slew of Steampunk specific festivals and events across the world, the creation of a peer reviewed journal ("Neo-Victorian Studies"), and features in The New York Times, Wired magazine and on MTV.

"The Clockwork Quartet is a Dresden Dolls-esque collective of 20-odd musicians, actors and cabaret performers who all play various bizarre and morbidly dark characters. Intrigued?" – NME

The Clockwork Quartet consists of a core quartet of guitar, bass banjo, violin and cello, with help from accordion, oboe, piccolo banjo, Stroh violin, musical saw, and the magnificent Steamdrone, as well as the percussive possibilities of clocks, metronomes, discarded mechanical parts and found objects. Members include two trained luthiers, a carpenter, a jeweler, a prop maker and sculptor, a doctor of zoology. Available through the band’s website are beautifully crafted leather-bound Victorian-style pocket books filled with song lyrics, music and original illustrations, along with unique Clockwork Quartet jewellery.

The Clockwork Quartet are based at House of Strange studios (Noah and the Whale, Emmy the Great, Mumford & Sons).

www.clockworkquartet.com
Email: press@clockworkquartet.com
Tel: +44 (0) 779 695 5572
http://twitter.com/ClockwrkQuartet