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Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal
(1829-1862)
Shepherd Turned Sailor
Now Christ ye save yon bonny shepherd
Sailing on the sea;
Ten thousand souls are sailing there
But they belong to Thee.
If he is lost then all is lost
And all is dead to me.
My love should have a grey head-stonee
And green moss at his feet
And clinging grass above his breast
Whereon his lambs could bleat,
And I should know the span of earth
Where some day I might sleep.
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal poems
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Archive S-T, Lizzy Siddal, Siddal, Lizzy
Heinrich von Kleist
(1777-1811)
Jünglingsklage
Winter, so weichst du,
Lieblicher Greis,
Der die Gefühle
Ruhigt zu Eis.
Nun unter Frühlings
Ueppigem Hauch
Schmelzen die Ströme –
Busen, du auch!
Heinrich von Kleist poetry
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Archive K-L, Heinrich von Kleist, Kleist, Heinrich von
Special event at Highgate Cemetery London
for the 150th anniversary of Lizzie Siddal’s death
February 11th is the 150th anniversary of Lizzie’s death. To commemorate this, Highgate Cemetery (Lizzie’s final resting place) is having a Talk at the cemetery on that day by Lucinda Hawksley, author of Lizzie Siddal: Face of the Pre-Raphaelites.
From the Highgate Cemetery website: This is a unique and historic occasion as it is in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Lizzie Siddal’s death: she died on February 11th 1862 and was buried at Highgate Cemetery six days later.
Lizzie Siddal was a nineteenth-century phenomenon: a working-class girl whose beauty made her the Pre-Raphaelite movement’s most celebrated, iconic face. Dante Rossetti, founder and leading light of the movement, painted and drew her obsessively a thousand times. She soon became a poet and artist in her own right.
However, as his lover and finally his wife, Lizzie’s relationship with Rossetti was blighted by his infidelities and neglect. In despair, Lizzie resorted to laudanum to numb her senses. In 1862 she took an overdose and left a suicide note.
Lucinda’s illustrated and vivid account of Lizzie’s meteoric but brief career and her tortured relationship breathes new life into the images of Lizzie frozen in time in galleries around the world.
The talk commences at 6.30 and will last around an hour. Booking: is in advance by email only at events@highgate-cemetery.org. Tickets: cost £10 each (£8 for students) including refreshments and nibbles. Space is limited so early booking is advised.
About Elizabeth Siddal
Elizabeth Siddal (July 25, 1829 – February 11, 1862)
While working in a millinery shop, Lizzie was discovered by the artist Walter Deverell who painted her as Viola in his depiction of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Lizzie went on to model for other Pre-Raphaelite artists and is most commonly recognized as Ophelia in the painting by John Everett Millais, but was the charismatic Dante Gabriel Rossetti who not only drew and painted her obsessively, but encouraged Lizzie in her own artwork and poetry. Their relationship was intense and rocky, with an engagement that lasted on and off for a decade. Sadly, their marriage was short. The couple suffered a stillborn child and Lizzie was seriously addicted to Laudanum. She died in 1862 due to an overdose. The rest of Lizzie’s tale is eerily famous for its gothic Victorian morbidity: Rossetti, in his grief, buried his only manuscript of his poems with Lizzie. The poems, nestled in her coffin amidst her famous red hair, haunted him. Seven years later, he had her coffin exhumed in order to retrieve the poems for publication. The story was spread that Lizzie was still in beautiful, pristine condition and that her flaming hair had continued to grow after death, filling the coffin. This, of course, is a biological impossibility. Cellular growth does not occur after death, but the tale has added to Lizzie’s legend and continues to capture the interest of Pre-Raphaelite and Lizzie Siddal enthusiasts.
The story of Lizzie’s life is punctuated with dramatic episodes such as falling ill as a result of modeling as Ophelia,, the tales of Rossetti’s dalliances, and her grief at the loss of their stillborn daughter. Our modern society is much more aware and educated than the Victorians regarding mental health issues. Unfortunately for Elizabeth Siddal, she lived in a time where addiction was a taboo subject and little was known about post-partum depression. Lizzie lived within a cycle of illness, addiction and grief with no resources available to her. And although she did have a creative outlet while most women were denied modes of self expression, Lizzie was never able to move beyond the addiction that claimed her life.
Source: website LizzieSiddal.com
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Galerie des Morts, Lizzy Siddal, Siddal, Lizzy
Oscar Wilde
(1854-1900)
The Grave of Keats
(sonnet)
Rid of the world’s injustice, and his pain,
He rests at last beneath God’s veil of blue:
Taken from life when life and love were new
The youngest of the martyrs here is lain,
Fair as Sebastian, and as early slain.
No cypress shades his grave, no funeral yew,
But gentle violets weeping with the dew
Weave on his bones an ever-blossoming chain.
O proudest heart that broke for misery!
O sweetest lips since those of Mitylene!
O poet-painter of our English land!
Thy name was writ in water – it shall stand:
And tears like mine will keep thy memory green,
As Isabella did her Basil tree.
Rome
Oscar Wilde
Het graf van Keats
(sonnet)
In de nieuwe vertaling van Cornelis W. Schoneveld
Van ‘s werelds onrecht en zijn pijn bevrijd,
Rust hij op ‘t laatst onder God’s hemelbaan:
Uit liefde en leven, nieuw nog, heengegaan
Ligt hier de jongste lijder neergevlijd,
Schoon als Sebastiaan, even jong ook dood.
Hier geeft cipres noch taxus schaduw af,
Maar waar viooltjes wenen op zijn graf
Is zijn gebeente nooit van bloei ontbloot.
O hart vol trots dat brak door hoe het leed!
O stem die ‘t zoetst sinds Mytylene’s is!
O schilder-dichter van ons Engeland!
Je schreef je naam in water-hij houdt stand:
En ook mijn traan steunt jouw gedachtenis,
Zoals Isabella’s balsemkruid dat deed.
Rome
VALLEND BLOEMBLAD
Verzameling van 90 korte gedichten van OSCAR WILDE
Vertaald door Cornelis W. Schoneveld
tweetalige uitgave, 2011
ongepubliceerd
fleursdumal.nl nagazine
More in: John Keats, Keats, John, Wilde, Wilde, Oscar
Amy Winehouse new release
Lioness, Hidden Treasures
Just released: a 12 track collection of previously unreleased tracks of Amy Winehouse, alternate versions of existing classics as well as a couple of brand new Amy compositions. It has been compiled by long-time musical partners Salaam Remi and Mark Ronson in close association with Amy’s family, management and record label Island Records. “Lioness : Hidden Treasures” proves a fitting tribute to the artist, the talent and the woman and serves as a reminder of Amy’s extraordinary powers as a songwriter, a singer and an interpreter of classics.
Tracklisting:
1. Our Day Will Come
2. Between The Cheats
3. Tears Dry (Original Version)
4. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? (2011)
5. Like Smoke Feat. Nas
6. Valerie (’68 Version)
7. Girl From Ipanema
8. Half Time
9. Wake Up Alone (Original Recording)
10. Best Friends, Right?
11. Body And Soul With Tony Bennett
12. A Song For You
Amy Winehouse: Lioness Hidden Treasures album comes with an exclusive poster. £1 of every sale in UK/Eire goes to the Amy Winehouse Foundation, set up in Amy’s memory to support charitable activities that can provide help, support or care for young people, especially those who are in need by reason of ill health, disability, financial disadvantage or addiction.
Amy Winehouse (14 September 1983 – 23 July 2011)
Amy Winehouse released her critically acclaimed debut album, Frank, in 2003, an album that introduced a truly singular talent and earned. the then 20 year-old a nomination for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize. It was however in 2006, with the release of the universally lauded Back to Black, that Amy became widely recognised, by the critics and public alike, as arguably the greatest British artist to emerge in generations. Back To Black received an astonishing six Grammy Award nominations winning five, tying the then record for the most wins by a female artist in a single night. Amy became the first British female to win five Grammys, including three of the “Big Four”: Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
On 14 February 2007, she won a BRIT Award for Best British Female Artist and was also nominated for Best British Album. She won the Ivor Novello Award three times, one in 2004 for Best Contemporary Song (musically and lyrically) for “Stronger Than Me”, one in 2007 for Best Contemporary Song for “Rehab”, and one in 2008 for Best Song Musically and Lyrically for “Love Is a Losing Game”, among other distinctions. In August 2011 her album Back to Black became the UK’s best selling album of the 21st century.
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Amy Winehouse, Amy Winehouse, Exhibition Archive
Emily Brontë
(1818-1848)
The Night-Wind
In summer’s mellow midnight,
A cloudless moon shone through
Our open parlour window
And rosetrees wet with dew.
I sat in silent musing,
The soft wind waved my hair:
It told me Heaven was glorious.
And sleeping Earth was fair.
I needed not its breathing
To bring such thoughts to me,
But still it whispered lowly,
“How dark the woods will be!
“The thick leaves in my murmur
Are rustling like a dream,
And all their myriad voices
Instinct with spirit seem.”
I said, “Go, gentle singer,
Thy wooing voice is kind,
But do not think its music
Has power to reach my mind.
“Play with the scented flower,
The young tree’s supple bough,
And leave my human feelings
In their own course to flow.”
The wanderer would not leave me;
Its kiss grew warmer still –
“O come,” it sighed so sweetly,
“I’ll win thee ‘gainst thy will.
“Have we not been from childhood friends?
Have I not loved thee long?
As long as thou hast loved the night
Whose silence wakes my song.
“And when thy heart is laid at rest
Beneath the church-yard stone
I shall have time enough to mourn
And thou to be alone.”
1840
Emily Brontë
De nachtwind
In ‘t milde zomer-nachtuur
Scheen ‘t maanlicht helderblauw
Door de openstaande tuindeur
En rozenboom vol dauw.
Ik zat in rust te mijmeren,
Mij roerde zacht de wind:
Hij vond de Hemel roemrijk,
d’ Aard’, slapend, welgezind.
Zijn adem kon ik missen
Voor zo ‘n gedachtenlijn,
Maar toch sprak hij weer zachtjes,
“Het bos zal donker zijn!
“Het loof ritselt als schimmen
Door mijn geruis geraakt,
En al hun stemmen schijnen
Door geesten wijs gemaakt.”
Ik zei, “Ga, goede zanger,
Al klinkt je vlei-lied zoet,
Meen niet dat jouw nocturne
Mijn denken wankelen doet.
“Bespeel geurende bloemen,
Raak jonge twijgen aan,
Maar laat mijn mens-gevoelens
Hun eigen weg inslaan.”
De zwerver wou niet heengaan;
Zijn kus nam toe in gloed –
“O kom,” zuchtte hij zachtjes,
“Ik win je, wat je ook doet.
“Was jij van jongsaf niet mijn vriend?
Mind’ ik je niet allang?
Zo lang je al dol bent op de nacht
Wekt stilte daar mijn zang.
“En als op ‘t kerkhof in je graf
Je hart is neergevleid
Heb ik veel tijd voor rouwbeklag
En jij voor eenzaamheid.”
Vertaling Cornelis W. Schoneveld
Uit: Bestorm mijn hart, de beste Engelse gedichten uit de 16e-19e eeuw gekozen en vertaald door Cornelis W. Schoneveld, tweetalige editie. Rainbow Essentials no. 55, Uitgeverij Maarten Muntinga, Amsterdam, 2008, 296 pp, € 9,95 ISBN: 9789041740588
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Anne, Emily & Charlotte Brontë, Archive A-B, Brontë, Brontë, Anne, Emily & Charlotte
Percy Byssche Shelley
(1792-1822)
To Night
Swiftly walk o’er the western wave,
Spirit of Night!
Out of the misty eastern cave,
Where, all the long and lone daylight,
Thou wovest dreams of joy and fear,
Which make thee terrible and dear, –
Swift be thy flight!
Wrap thy form in a mantle grey,
Star-inwrought!
Blind with thine hair the eyes of Day;
Kiss her until she be wearied out –
Then wander o’er city, and sea, and land,
Touching all with thine opiate wand –
Come, long-sought!
When I arose and saw the dawn,
I sighed for thee;
When light rode high, and the dew was gone,
And noon lay heavy on flower and tree,
And the weary Day turned to his rest,
Lingering like an unloved guest,
I sighed for thee.
Thy brother Death came, and cried,
Wouldst thou me?
Thy sweet child Sleep, the filmy-eyed,
Murmured like a noontide bee,
Shall I nestle near thy side?
Wouldst thou me? – And I replied,
No, not thee!
Death will come when thou art dead,
Soon, too soon –
Sleep will come when thou art fled;
Of neither would I ask the boon
I ask of thee belovèd Night –
Swift be thine approaching flight,
Come soon, soon!
1821
Percy Byssche Shelley
Aan de nacht
Jaag snel over de westgolf voort,
Geest van de Nacht!
Uit de mistgrot van ‘t oosters oord,
Waar, ‘t daglicht lang, jij eenzaam wacht,
En bange en blije dromen weeft,
Wat angst, en vriendschap, voor je geeft, –
Snel zij je jacht!
Neem ‘n mantel, grijs, met sterbeslag,
Sla hem om!
Blinddoek met j’ haardos eerst de Dag;
Kus haar dan moe, weerom en weerom –
Ga daarna stad, en land, en zeeën af,
‘t Al rakend met je opiumstaf –
Gezochte, kom!
Toen de ochtend gloorde voor mijn oog,
Gold jou mijn zucht;
Toen dauw weg was, en het daglicht hoog,
Toen ‘t groen leed door de middaglucht,
En toen moe de Dag zocht naar zijn rust,
Dralend als ‘n gast, lang weggekust,
Gold jou mijn zucht.
Je broer de Dood kwam, en vroeg,
“Zocht je mij?”
Je zoet kind Slaap, die ‘n oogfloers droeg,
Gonsde als een middagbij:
“Wou jij dat ik naast je sliep?
Zocht je mij?” – Waarop ik riep,
“Weg hier, jij!”
Dood komt na jouw laatste zucht,
Gauw, te gauw –
Slaap komt als jij bent gevlucht;
De gunst die ik nu vraag van jou
Vraag ik hun niet, geliefde Nacht –
Eindig hier gezwind je jacht,
Kom gauw, gauw!
Vertaling Cornelis W. Schoneveld
Uit: Bestorm mijn hart, de beste Engelse gedichten uit de 16e-19e eeuw gekozen en vertaald door Cornelis W. Schoneveld, tweetalige editie. Rainbow Essentials no. 55, Uitgeverij Maarten Muntinga, Amsterdam, 2008, 296 pp, € 9,95 ISBN: 9789041740588
Kempis.nl poetry magazine
More in: Archive S-T, Percy Byssche Shelley, Shelley, Shelley, Percy Byssche
photos anton k.
Amy Winehouse graffiti
Its not the choice that breaks you, its the decision rather you want to be broken.
Amy 1983-2011 R.I.P.
Graffity, Tilburg NL, August 2011
flleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Amy Winehouse, Amy Winehouse, Graffity, Street Art, Urban Art
In Memoriam Amy Winehouse
Southgate, 14 september 1983 – Camden, 23 juli 2011
Back To Black
Song Text
He left no time to regret
Kept his dick wet
With his same old safe bet
Me and my head high
And my tears dry
Get on without my guy
You went back to what you knew
So far removed from all that we went through
And I tread a troubled track
My odds are stacked
I’ll go back to black
We only said good-bye with words
I died a hundred times
You go back to her
And I go back to…..
I go back to us
I love you much
It’s not enough
You love blow and I love puff
And life is like a pipe
And I’m a tiny penny rolling up the walls inside
We only said goodbye with words
I died a hundred times
You go back to her
And I go back to
(…)
We only said good-bye with words
I died a hundred times
You go back to her
And I go back to black
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Amy Winehouse, Amy Winehouse, Exhibition Archive
In memory of
Amy Winehouse
(1983-2011)
Back to Black
We only said good-bye with words
I died a hundred times
You go back to her
And I go back to black
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Amy Winehouse, Amy Winehouse, Exhibition Archive, In Memoriam
Amy Levy
(1861-1889)
Ballade of an Omnibus
“To see my love suffices me.”
Ballades in Blue China
Some men to carriages aspire;
On some the costly hansoms wait;
Some seek a fly, on job or hire;
Some mount the trotting steed, elate.
I envy not the rich and great,
A wandering minstrel, poor and free,
I am contented with my fate —
An omnibus suffices me.
In winter days of rain and mire
I find within a corner strait;
The ‘busmen know me and my lyre
From Brompton to the Bull-and-Gate.
When summer comes, I mount in state
The topmost summit, whence I see
Crœsus look up, compassionate —
An omnibus suffices me.
I mark, untroubled by desire,
Lucullus’ phaeton and its freight.
The scene whereof I cannot tire,
The human tale of love and hate,
The city pageant, early and late
Unfolds itself, rolls by, to be
A pleasure deep and delicate.
An omnibus suffices me.
Princess, your splendour you require,
I, my simplicity; agree
Neither to rate lower nor higher.
An omnibus suffices me.
Amy Levy poetry
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Amy Levy, Archive K-L, Levy, Amy
Amy Levy
(1861-1889)
A June-Tide Echo
(After a Richter Concert)
In the long, sad time, when the sky was grey,
And the keen blast blew through the city drear,
When delight had fled from the night and the day,
My chill heart whispered, ” June will be here!
” June with its roses a-sway in the sun,
Its glory of green on mead and tree.”
Lo, now the sweet June-tide is nearly done,
June-tide, and never a joy for me
Is it so much of the gods that I pray?
Sure craved man never so slight a boon!
To be glad and glad in my heart one day–
One perfect day of the perfect June.
Sweet sounds to-night rose up, wave upon wave;
Sweet dreams were afloat in the balmy air.
This is the boon of the gods that I crave–
To be glad, as the music and night were fair.
For once, for one fleeting hour, to hold
The fair shape the music that rose and fell
Revealed and concealed like a veiling fold;
To catch for an instant the sweet June spell.
For once, for one hour, to catch and keep
The sweet June secret that mocks my heart;
Now lurking calm, like a thing asleep,
Now hither and thither with start and dart.
Then the sick, slow grief of the weary years,
The slow, sick grief and the sudden pain;
The long days of labour, the nights of tears–
No more these things would I hold in vain.
I would hold my life as a thing of worth;
Pour praise to the gods for a precious thing.
Lo, June in her fairness is on earth,
And never a joy does the niggard bring.
Amy Levy poetry
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Amy Levy, Archive K-L, Levy, Amy
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