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| Edward Collier Still Life with a volume of Wither's 'Emblemes' 1696 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
The Marigold
When with a serious musing I behold
The grateful and obsequious marigold,
How duly, ev'ry morning, she displays
Her open breast, when Titan spreads his rays;
How she observes him in his daily walk,
Still bending towards him her tender stalk;
How, when he down declines, she droops and mourns,
Bedew'd, as 'twere, with tears, till he returns;
And how she veils her flow'rs when he is gone,
As if she scorned to be looked on
By an inferior eye, or did contemn
To wait upon a meaner light than him;
When this I meditate, methinks the flowers
Have spirits far more generous than ours,
And give us fair example to despise
The servile fawnings and idolatries
Wherewith we court these earthly things below
Which merit not the service we bestow.
But, O my God! though groveling I appear
Upon the ground (and have a rooting here
Which hales me downward) yet in my desire
To that which is above me I aspire;
And all my best affections I profess
To Him that is the sun of righteousness.
Oh, keep the morning of His incarnation,
The burning noontide of His bitter passion,
The night of his descending, and the height
Of His ascension ever in my sight.
That imitating Him in what I may,
I never follow an inferior way.
– George Wither (1635)
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| Abraham Mignon Still Life with Flowers and a Watch ca. 1660-79 oil on canvas Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Adriaen Coorte Shells on a Stone Plinth 1698 oil on paper, mounted on panel Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Hans Bollongier Floral Still Life 1639 oil on panel Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Jan Steen The Baker Arent Oostwaard and his wife Catharina Keizerswaard 1658 oil on panel Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Bread
Each face in the street is a slice of bread
wandering on
searching
somewhere in the light the true hunger
appears to be passing them by
they clutch
have they forgotten the pale caves
they dreamed of hiding in
their own caves
full of the waiting of their footprints
hung with the hollow marks of their groping
full of their sleep and their hiding
have they forgotten the ragged tunnels
they dreamed of following in out of the light
to hear step after step
the heart of bread
to be sustained by its dark breath
and emerge
to find themselves alone
before a wheat field
raising its radiance to the moon
– W.S. Merwin (1971)
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| Jan Steen Couple Drinking ca. 1660-79 oil on panel Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Govert Flinck Portrait of Gerard Pietersz Hulft of the Dutch East India Company 1654 oil on canvas Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Govert Flinck Portrait of a Man traditionally known as Gozen Centen ca/ 1639-40 oil on panel Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Adriaen van de Venne Stadholder Prince Maurice lying in State ca. 1625 oil on copper Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
from The Other Stars
Over the hub of the hill, a solid wall of
silver leaves. Underfoot, soil without
burrows. Blanketing soil and leaves, a scrim of
hushed and unpunctured blue. Then all of a sudden,
rumors of something about to happen; the night
restless with its own unkeepable secrets,
the very air strained and achingly electric.
Because you are not here, nighttime behaves
this way, calling for terms I'd long since put away:
susurration, intrigue, reverberant. It is only
in your magnanimous absence that stony surroundings
can sing your praises so; I curse even as I gape
to know that their raving requires your being
anywhere else. The evening hums in compensation.
– Rachel Wetzsteon (1994)
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| Nicolaes Maes Portrait of a Young Man ca. 1675-85 oil on canvas Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| workshop of Jan van Ravesteyn Portrait of Philipp Ernst, Count of Hohenlohe zu Langenburg ca. 1609-35 oil on panel Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Rembrandt Portrait of Marten Soolmans 1634 oil on canvas Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Frans Hals Portrait of Feyntje van Steenkiste 1635 oil on canvas Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Frans Hals Portrait of a Man ca. 1635 oil on canvas Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Peter Lely Susanna and the Elders ca. 1650-55 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |