Vintage Art Appreciation: Still Life by José Gutiérrez Solana

Untitled, Still Life
by José Gutiérrez Solana (1886 - 1945)
Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises.
― Pedro Calderon de la Barca

This plant represents what's happening inside of you. The world, like the soil, is cold and dark—layered with a history of destruction and death. You were planted in this world to rise above it. Do you not see? The very existence of this darkness gives you the opportunity to become a light to the world.
― Seth Adam Smith, Rip Van Winkle and the Pumpkin Lantern

Every living creature on this planet, has a conscious subjective perspective of the world. Even the plants may seem to us as standing indifferent to the human sufferings, but even they have their own unique mental universe. They have their own way of interacting with the environment.
― Abhijit Naskar, What is Mind?

Free Vintage Nature Poem: The Birds by Pierre-Jean de Béranger

The Bird Charmer, 1873
by Léon Bazille Perrault (1832 – 1908)

Happy who for a season may
Absent themselves on buoyant wing!
The birds that Winter drives away
Will surely come again with Spring.
They of our ills will mindful be,
And when at length the storm has passed,
They will return to this same tree
Which has so often felt the blast.
Then to our fertile vale will they
A more auspicious presage bring!
The birds that Winter drives away
Will surely come again with Spring.
― Pierre-Jean de Béranger, The Birds (translated from the French by Percy Reeve)

Free Vintage Nature Poem: Primrose Sweet by Samuel S. McCurry

Photo credit: Ella8 from Pixabay
Here is a public domain Victorian poem by Samuel S. McCurry entitled "Primrose Sweet," originally published in March of 1893. This is how it goes:

O Primrose Sweet! Of sun and shower
The offspring fair. Of glade and bower
We watch thy dainty leaves unfold
In fairy clouds of clustered gold,
When wintry skies no longer lower.

The earnest, thou, of Spring's bright dower;
For thee we longed the dreary hour,
When wailed the winds across the world,
O Primrose Sweet!

We hail thy coming, gentle flower!
And, yielding to the majestic power,
Love, Love, that erst was doubting, cold,
Shall pipe to thee a paean bold,
And Faith revived shall cease to cower,
Primrose Sweet!


Public domain poem is from my personal collection. All digitized poems by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Free Vintage Nature Poem: My Love by M. Hedderwick Browne

A Victorian poem titled "My Love," written by M. (Marie) Hedderwick Browne, and published in 1893. Here, the author compares the hardy personality of love to various flowers and finds them wanting until she comes to the resilient and low-maintenance heather which she holds in high esteem. Here is how the poem goes:

I
My love is not like the rose,
Nor the languid lady-lily,
Nor the pansy, pensive-faced,
Nor the drooping "daffy-dilly."

II
She's not like the pale snowdrop,
Fears of frailty in us waking,
Nor the shrinking violet,
For the shade the sun forsaking.

III
I can only liken her
To the brave and bonnie heather --
Hardy, wholesome, and not made
For a hothouse or fine weather.

Public domain poem is from my personal collection. All digitized poems by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.