While looking on Etsy.com I came across this painting of Lord Byron. I had never thought that a poems purpose was to leave an impact.I always thought of poetry as another way to express oneself like dancing, or playing an instrument, and the information got leaked out into the public. Then again even dancing and music are meant to provoke emotions from audiences. But was that the point at the beginning? Anyway the artist Lydia Burris explained that she made this after hearing that Byron made a request before he died; He'd rather someone make a wine glass from his skull than have it uselessly rot inside the Earth. Byron believed that whoever were to drink from the glass would inherit some of his roaming minds thoughts and ideas. It sounds like something Romans used to believe from hods, and i think that's what Lydia was trying to portray with the stoic face, and neutral color pallet. My favorite part is how she used a dead tree for the branches of knowledge coming from his mind, and the cracked forehead as if the only purpose for these vessels is to carry around our brains like greenery in a garden pot. Also like a living thing a tree must be fed nourishment. Lord Byron's love for literature, along with many other things, certainly fed his appetite. Another reason it was appropriate for Lydia to use a tree was Byron's close mind with the natural world. Like all romantics Byron believed in inhaling organic beauty instead of crushing it with bare feet. The quote "The Immortal Ideas of a Dead Poet" is appropriate for not only all poets, but people who choose to share their beliefs. I don't see why every human on the planet can not be a poet of their own, we all write our thoughts down. The difference is not all are made into books, though still equally important. Individualism is a strong piece of romanticism too, so I hope that Byron would agree with me if he were still here. Even the tiniest sentence with just enough creativity and faithfulness to the author's heart can be a masterpiece.
For more beautiful artwork by Lydia Burris click here
-Athena
Athena, I think this a great entry. It seems like you hit all the main points of the picture and covered all the different thoughts and aspects of it too. I agree 100% on your thoughts of the picture of Lord George Gordon Byron. I also think that you were dead on with your idea of why his hair or brain was like tree branches and his head as a beautiful pot to keep such an extraordinary and amazing thing inside . So my take on what you are saying with that is people are much more then the way their face looks like and the material things but how you work your mind. In another sense you can see it as trees will grow as long as you take care of them, just like the mind. If you never nurture your mind and exercise your it it will not grow. Also when you said you never thought of poetry being a way to express yourself, but music and dancing could I again agree with you. Who knew that people could express themselves by writing, but then again everyone is unique and different in their own ways and everyone handles their feelings a lot different them other people do. That’s what molds us into the people we are. I think that people who do write to express themselves have a lot of self control and instead of having to get up to calm down they can put all of their thoughts and feelings onto a sheet of paper so, more power to them. When you said you believed that everyone could be a poet I thought you were right on that one too. People can be their own poets just for the simple fact that they too have a brain and have had experiences in their lives that could lead them to a poem. Another reason is because even for the people who are shy and wouldn’t want anyone to know what they were saying could easily write a poem that only they can understand. I think you did a great job on your blog and I agree that the picture is very beautiful. Good job!
ReplyDelete-Baily Copeland
Thank you Baily, you made a lot of really good points that I never even thought of. With your permission I may go back and add some of those ideas in, and give credit to you of course :), would you mind?
ReplyDelete-Athena