Monday 19 October 2009

Inspiration where you can find it

Have just started my new book - set in June - in high summer. I'm trying to imagine roses, and lilac - the drone of bees in the hazy sunshine. While outside my window the leaves are turning bronze and gold and it's most definitely autumn.




And that's why I took this photo this morning. The blooms look perfect - almost too perfect -as if I had pinched the image from a gardening catalogue! From the outside the flowers look completely flawless, just like my latest heroine....though you can only imagine the turmoil which lies beneath her enviable exterior.

When I'm trying to lose myself in the great swirl of love - and all the feelings and emotions which go with it - I can do no better than to consult a perfect poem. Like this one. Here are the first two verses:

Come into the garden Maud

by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Come into the garden, Maud,
For the black bat, night, has flown,
Come into the garden, Maud,
I am here at the gate alone ;
And the woodbine spices are wafted abroad,
And the musk of the rose is blown.

For a breeze of morning moves,
And the planet of Love is on high,
Beginning to faint in the light that she loves
On a bed of daffodil sky,
To faint in the light of the sun she loves,
To faint in his light, and to die.



Do you have a poem which always inspires you?

5 comments:

  1. Very glad to know you have started a new book - in the meanwhile I have just finished "Bought for the Sicilian billionaire's bed" and I liked it so much! Salvatore and Jessica story is really amazing.

    Here is one of my favourite poems by one of my favourite authors of all times, the Russian Alexander Sergeevic Pushkin - I still remind the wonderful times when I studied it at University - he's really great.

    I REMEMBER A WONDERFUL MOMENT

    I remember a wonderful moment
    As before my eyes you appeared,
    Like a vision, fleeting, momentary,
    Like a spirit of the purest beauty.

    In the torture of hopeless melancholy,
    In the bustle of the world's noisy hours,
    That voice rang out so tenderly,
    I dreamed of that lovely face of yours.

    The years flew quickly. The storm's blast
    Scattered the dreams of former times,
    And I forgot your tender voice,
    And the features of your heavenly face.

    In remoteness, in gloomy isolation,
    My days dragged quietly, nothing was new,
    No godlike face, no inspiration,
    No tears, no life, no love, no you.

    Then to my soul an awakening came,
    And there again your face appeared,
    Like a vision, fleeting, momentary,
    Like a spirit of the purest beauty.

    And my heart beat with a rapture new,
    And for its sake arose again
    A godlike face, an inspiration,
    And life, and tears, and love, and you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a gorgeous poem, Michela.....

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, I confirm: Pushkin is pure genius.

    The ultimate romantic heroes of the day, chosen from two classics of great cinema.

    About the first movie - my native land strongly wants me to mention it and, moreover it's one of the movies I love the most - "Roman Holiday" starring Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn.
    She: the princess - He: the journalist = the perfect couple, but happy ending isn't behind the corner. She has to choose duties of the crown, he will love her forever. He doesn't deceive her with an unknown scoop.
    Gregory Peck/Joe Bradley is a perfect hero - romantic, honest, charming.
    Three scenes to remember: the race on the vespa, the Mouth of Truth, the last scene where they see each other for the last time. The most beautiful play of glances.

    The second movie is "The Long Hot Summer" starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.
    Paul Newman/Ben Quick is another hero - he has a bad reputation because of his father's one (a pyromaniac) but he will overcome prejudices and troubles and he will also steal a shy and puritan girl's heart.
    The movie is full of symbolism: fire (material and metaphorical), shrewd of dialogues rich in allusions.

    Surely you have understood that cinema is my cult (with literature) - How I love classics... Do you, Sharon?

    ReplyDelete
  4. The late David Chipp's limericks never fail to provide inspiration.

    His 'Girl from Nantucket' is a classic.

    ReplyDelete