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| Antoine Chazal Roses in a Vase 1845 oil on canvas Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Rachel Ruysch A Spray of Flowers before 1750 oil on canvas Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Henri Fantin-Latour White Cup and Saucer 1864 oil on canvas Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Henri Fantin-Latour White Candlestick 1870 oil on canvas Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
Nick and the Candlestick
I am a miner. The light burns blue.
Waxy stalactites
Drip and thicken, tears
The earthen womb
Exudes from its dead boredom.
Black bat airs
Wrap me, raggy shawls,
Cold homicides.
They weld to me like plums.
Old cave of calcium
Icicles, old echoer.
Even the newts are white,
Those holy Joes.
And the fish, the fish –
Christ! they are panes of ice,
A vice of knives,
A piranha
Religion, drinking
Its first communion out of my live toes.
The candle
Gulps and recovers its small altitude,
Its yellows hearten.
O love, how did you get here?
O embryo
Remembering, even in sleep,
Your crossed position.
The blood blooms clean
In you, ruby.
The pain
You wake to is not yours.
Love, love,
I have hung our cave with roses,
With soft rugs –
The last of Victoriana.
Let the stars
Plummet to their dark address.
Let the mercuric
Atoms that cripple drip
Into the terrible well,
You are the one
Solid the spaces lean on, envious.
You are the baby in the barn.
– Sylvia Plath (1962)
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| Auguste Renoir Apples and Teacup before 1919 oil on canvas Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Auguste Renoir Apples and Walnuts before 1919 oil on panel (cigar-box lid) (formerly owned by Edith Wharton) Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Antonio Salviati Small Rose-colored Vase ca. 1885-90 Venetian glass Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Anonymous Persian artisan Bottle with Dropper Spout ca. 1700-1800 cobalt glass Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Albert Godde Bedin et cie (Lyon) Endleaf from fashion magazine Art Goût Beauté 1932 design for printed crêpe de chine Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Ethel Sands Still-life with a view over a cemetery before 1923 oil on panel Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Willem van Aelst Group of Flowers 1675 oil on canvas Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| C.W. Immink Asters and Autumn Leaves in a Vase before 1935 print from glass-plate negative Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Philip Reinagle Lilium Superbum before 1805 oil on canvas (for engraved book illustration) Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Jan Brueghel the Elder Stoneware Vase of Flowers ca. 1607-1608 oil on panel Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |