"I am not one who was born in the custody of wisdom. I am one who is fond of olden times and intense in quest of the sacred knowing of the ancients." Gustave Courbet

24 August 2016

Divine.

Constable, Cloud Study: Stormy Sunset, 1823


PLEASANT PLACES

Old stone-pits, with veined ivy overhung;
Wild crooked brooks, o’er which is rudely flung
A rail, and plank that bends beneath the tread;
Old narrow lanes, where trees meet over-head;
Path-stiles, on which a steeple we espy,
Peeping and stretching in the distant sky;
Heaths overspread with furze-bloom’s sunny shine,
Where Wonder pauses to exclaim, “Divine!”
Old ponds, dim shadowed with a broken tree;­—
These are the picturesque of Taste to me;
While painting Winds, to make complete the scene,
In rich confusion mingle every green,
Waving the sketchy pencils in their hands,
Shading the living scenes to fairy lands.

John Clare

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