JOHN STUART MILL


"What is Poetry?"






Mozart

Dove sono
from:  Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro)
Act III, scene viii
  (sung by Contessa d’Almaviva)



Dove sono i bei momenti
di dolcezza e di piacer,
dove andaro i giuramenti
di quel labbro menzogner?
Perché mai se in pianti e in pene
per me tutto si cangiò,
la memoria di quel bene
dal mio sen non trapassò?

Dove sono i bei momenti, ecc.
 
Ah! Se almen la mia costanza
 nel languire amando ognor,
 mi portasse una speranza
 di cangiar l'ingrato cor.


Ah! Se almen la mia costanza, ecc.



 Where are the golden moments
of tranquility and pleasure;
what became of the oaths
of that deceitful tongue?
Why did not, when my life
changed into tears and pain,
the memory of that joy
disappear from my breast?

Where are the golden moments, etc.

Ah!  If then my constancy
still loves through its sorrow,
the hope yet remains
of changing that ungrateful heart.

Ah! If then my constancy, etc.






Sir Thomas Lawrence


Miss Laura Dorothea Ross
(Mrs Francis Robertson)
 
circa 1798-1804









TURNER





The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, 16th October, 1834

 1835






Sun Setting over a Lake

 c. 1840







Rain, Steam and Speed

 1844






   
 REMBRANDT van RIJN


 Young Girl Leaning on a Windowsill

1645
  





 









FRA ANGELICO
(Guido)



Presentation in the Temple
 1440-41
Noli Me Tangere
 1440-41





TITIAN





Madonna and Child with St. Catherine and a Rabbit
 
1530






Entombment of Christ

c.1523-1526
St. John the Evangelist on Patmos

1544



CLAUDE LORRAIN





The Judgment of Paris

1645/1646





Coast Scene with an Artist

c. 1638/1641




SALVATOR ROSA




Landscape with Tobias and the Angel

probably 1660-73








"Greek temples express . . . graceful strength"
                                                                                -- J.S. Mill




Parthenon









Salisbury Cathedral
   
  "the pure Gothic cathedral;
conspicuous equally
in the mingled
majesty and gloom
of its vaulted roofs
and
stately aisles"
 
                 -- J.S. Mill




Salisbury Cathedral

Interior










       
                                                         
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

THE TABLES TURNED

(1798)

  

          UP! up! my Friend, and quit your books;
          Or surely you'll grow double:
          Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks;
          Why all this toil and trouble?

          The sun, above the mountain's head,
          A freshening lustre mellow
          Through all the long green fields has spread,
          His first sweet evening yellow.

          Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife:
          Come, hear the woodland linnet,                             10
          How sweet his music! on my life,
          There's more of wisdom in it.

          And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!
          He, too, is no mean preacher:
          Come forth into the light of things,
          Let Nature be your teacher.

          She has a world of ready wealth,
          Our minds and hearts to bless--
          Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
          Truth breathed by cheerfulness.                             20

          One impulse from a vernal wood
          May teach you more of man,
          Of moral evil and of good,
          Than all the sages can.

          Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
          Our meddling intellect
          Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:--
          We murder to dissect.

          Enough of Science and of Art;
          Close up those barren leaves;                               30
          Come forth, and bring with you a heart
          That watches and receives.