Friday Flowers: Temple of Love and Roses

Roses: French Lace (Floribunda)

Sonnet 55
(By William Shakespeare)

Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme;
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Than unswept stone besmear'd with sluttish time.
When wasteful war shall statues overturn,
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor Mars his sword nor war's quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.
'Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.
So, till the judgment that yourself arise,
You live in this, and dwell in lover's eyes.

We've skipped a few significant Shakespeare related dates over the past few weeks. So, here's a brief post to compensate. ;-)

Temple of Love in the Rose Garden at the Huntington Gardens

As for the roses, it's about time that we celebrated their return. Lovely, lovely flowers!!!

Springing into Spring Time

Detail of Irises (1889) by Vincent van Gogh


A Prayer in Spring
(By Robert Frost)

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfil.


Finally, we've made our way past winter, my least favorite season. The cold, the gloom, the lack of flowers, these all drag on me, weighing down my spirit. Writing helps alleviate the heaviness, but I hate the inefficiencies that nag at all my projects.

If I keep on blogging for a series of years, you'll recognize the seasonal pattern. But Spring is finally here!!! And I'm ready to have some fun! ;-)

Detail of Spring (1896) by Alphonse Mucha

So, let's listen to some music.

The Heart of Music

Nino Rota won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for The Godfather in 1974.


On this date in 1911, the great cinematic composer, Nino Rota was born.

One way of judging the effectiveness of a movie score is to imagine how a scene would feel if the music were removed. How would the mood be changed? How memorable is it with a background of silence?

If this test were applied to Nino Rota's work, the answers are clear. Yes, movies such as The Godfather or La Dolce Vita would still be masterpieces, but their underlying intensity of mood, which the music conveys, would certainly be weaker. In the case of lesser films, Rota's music is that which makes them stand out.

The Love Theme from Romeo & Juliet topped the US charts in 1969.

So let's take a moment today to remember Nino Rota's artistry and the beauty of his music.

Friday Flowers: Here Be Snapdragons

Antirrhinum: Pink Snapdragons


How like a winter hath my absence been (Sonnet 97)
(By William Shakespeare)

How like a winter hath my absence been
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!
What old December’s bareness every where!
And yet this time remov’d was summer’s time;
The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,
Bearing the wanton burden of the prime,
Like widow’d wombs after their lords’ decease:
Yet this abundant issue seem’d to me
But hope of orphans and unfather’d fruit;
For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
And, thou away, the very birds are mute:
   Or, if they sing, ’tis with so dull a cheer,
   That leaves look pale, dreading the winter’s near.


Well, when in a rush, you can't go wrong with Shakespeare. ;-)

Antirrhinum: Red Snapdragons


And we start our focus on cold season blooms with the ever lovely antirrhinum, also known as the snapdragon.

Friday's Flower Never Fades

Sonnet 18
(William Shakespeare)

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Shakespeare's Sonnets were first published on this date in 1609. Here's a Wikipedia link.

Enjoy!!!

Beware the Ides of March

My interest in history and Classical civilization started when I first read Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" in the 7th grade. When reading this play, I felt transported via my imagination to the Roman world. It brought the dry facts and dates of history to dramatic life. It remains one of my favorite works of literature, mainly because of this personal significance.

In honor of the Ides, here a link to Caesar's wikipedia page.

Enjoy!