The Seventh Day of Christmas

Nativity  Lorenzo the Elder Costa

Matthew 1:22-25

So all this was done that it might be fulfilled 

which was spoken by the Lord 

Dream of St. Joseph  Francisco de Goya

through the prophet, saying: 

“Behold, 
the virgin shall be with child, 

and bear a Son, 

and they shall call His name Immanuel,” 

which is translated, “God with us.” 

Then Joseph, 
being aroused from sleep, 

did as the angel of the Lord commanded him 

and took to him his wife,

and did not know her 
till she had brought forth her firstborn Son.

And he called His name JESUS.

The Sixth Day of Christmas

The Dream of St. Joseph  Jacques Stella

Matthew 1:20-21

But while he thought about these things, 

behold, an angel of the Lord 

Joseph's Dream  Gaetano Gandolfi

appeared to him in a dream, saying, 

“Joseph, son of David, 
do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, 

for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 

And she will bring forth a Son, 

and you shall call His name JESUS, 

for He will save His people from their sins.” 

The Fifth Day of Christmas

The Anxiety of Saint Joseph  James Tissot

Matthew 1:18-19

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: 

After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, 

before they came together, 

she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. 

Then Joseph her husband, 

being a just man,

and not wanting to make her a public example, 

was minded to put her away secretly.

The Fourth Day of Christmas

Shepherds  Joachim Wtewaar

Luke 2:17-20

Song of the Angels
William-Adolphe Bougereau

Now when they had seen Him, 

they made widely known 

the saying which was told them concerning this Child. 

And all those who heard it 

Nativity
Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen

marveled at those things 
which were told them 
by the shepherds. 

But Mary kept all these things 
and pondered them in her heart. 

Then the shepherds returned, 

glorifying and praising God 

for all the things 
that they had heard and seen, 

as it was told them.

The Third Day of Christmas

The Nativity  William Bell Scott

The Nativity and Adoration of the Shepherds
Giotto Di Bondone

Luke 2:15-16

So it was, 

when the angels 
had gone away from them

Adoration of the Shepherds
Gerard van Honthorst

 into heaven, 
that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem

 and see this thing 
that has come to pass, 

which the Lord 
has made known to us.” 

And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, 

and the Babe lying in a manger. 

The Second Day of Christmas

Angels Announcing Christ's Birth to the Shepherds  Govert Flinck

Angels Announcing the Birth of our Savior
Benjamin West

Luke 2:8-1

Now there were in the same country 

shepherds living out in the fields, 

keeping watch over their flock by night. 

And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them,

and the glory of the Lord shone around them,

and they were greatly afraid. 

Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, 

Nativity Scene  Anton Raphael Mengs

for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.  
For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, 
who is Christ the Lord. 

And this will be the sign to you: 

You will find a Babe 
wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” 

And suddenly there was with the angel 
a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: 

“ Glory to God in the highest, 

And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

The First Day of Christmas

The Number ing at Bethlehem   Pieter Bruegel the Elder 

St. Joseph Seeks Lodging  James Tissot

Luke 2 1-6 

And it came to pass in those days 

that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus 

that all the world should be registered. 

This census first took place 
while Quirinius was governing Syria. 

So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.

Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth,

 into Judea, to the city of David, 
which is called Bethlehem, 

Nativity  Lorenzo Lotto

because he was of the house 
and lineage of David, 

to be registered with Mary, 
his betrothed wife, who was with child. 

So it was, that while they were there, 

the days were completed for her to be delivered. 

And she brought forth her firstborn Son, 

and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, 

and laid Him in a manger, 

because there was no room for them in the inn.

Posting Hiatus

I am taking a brief respite from posting daily.  I have something special planned beginning on Christmas Day, so be sure to check back beginning then.

Rehearsal   Edgar Degas

M. Degas Teaches Art and Science 

at Durfee Elementary School, Detroit-1942

by Philip Levine 

He made a line on the blackboard,

one bold stroke from right to left

diagonally downward and stood back

to ask, looking as always at no one

in particular, "What have I done?"

From the back of the room Freddie

shouted, "You've broken a piece

of chalk." M. Degas did not smile.

"What have I done?" he repeated.

The most intellectual students

looked down to study their desks

except for Gertrude Bimmler, who raised

her hand before she spoke. "M. Degas,

you have created the hypotenuse

of an isosceles triangle." Degas mused. 

Everyone knew that Gertrude could not

be incorrect. "It is possible,"

Louis Warshowsky added precisely,

"that you have begun to represent

the roof of a barn." I remember

that it was exactly twenty minutes

past eleven, and I thought at worst

this would go on another forty

minutes. It was early April,

the snow had all but melted on

the playgrounds, the elms and maples

bordering the cracked walks shivered

in the new winds, and I believed

that before I knew it I'd be

swaggering to the candy store

for a Milky Way. M. Degas

pursed his lips, and the room

stilled until the long hand

of the clock moved to twenty one

as though in complicity with Gertrude,

who added confidently, "You've begun

to separate the dark from the dark."

I looked back for help, but now

the trees bucked and quaked, and I

knew this could go on forever.

Maker of Heaven and Earth

The Creation of Adam from the Sistine Chapel
Michelangelo Buonarrati

All Things Bright and Beautiful

by Cecil F. Alexander

All things bright and beautiful,

All creatures great and small,

All things wise and wonderful:

The Lord God made them all.

Each little flower that opens,

Each little bird that sings,

He made their glowing colors,

He made their tiny wings.

The rich man in his castle,

The poor man at his gate,

He made them, high or lowly,

And ordered their estate.

The purple headed mountains,

The river running by,

The sunset and the morning

That brightens up the sky.

The cold wind in the winter,

The pleasant summer sun,

The ripe fruits in the garden,

He made them every one.

The tall trees in the greenwood,

The meadows where we play,

The rushes by the water,

To gather every day.

He gave us eyes to see them,

And lips that we might tell

How great is God Almighty,

Who has made all things well

A Martial Attitude

Napoleon Crossing the Alps  Jacques-Louis David

from Waverly 

by Sir Walter Scott

His heart was all on honour bent,

He could not stoop to love;

No lady in the land had power 

His frozen heart to move.

Earthly Kingdoms

Las Meninas The Family of Philip IV  Diego Velazquez

The Kingdom 
                  by Rudyard Kipling
Now we are come to our Kingdom,
And the State is thus and thus;
Our legions wait at the Palace gate--
Little it profits us.
Now we are come to our Kingdom!

Now we are come to our Kingdom,
And the Crown is ours to take--
With shame and fear for our daily cheer,
And heaviness at night.
Now we are come for our Kingdom!

Now we are come for our Kingdom,
And the Realm is ours by right,
With shame and fear for our daily cheer,
And heaviness at night.
Now we are come to our Kingdom!

Now we are come to our Kingdom,
But my love's eyelids fall.
All that I wrought for, all that I fought for,
Delight her nothing at all.
My crown is of withered leaves,
For she sits in the dust and grieves.
Now we are come for our Kingdom!

Traumgarten  Henri Rousseau

The Young Lady of Niger

by William Cosmo Monkhouse

There was a young lady of Niger

Who smiled as she rode on a tiger;

They returned from the ride

With the lady inside,

And the smile on the face of the tiger.

The Sea's Appeal

Boats at Anchor on the Lagoons, Venice   John Singer Sargent

A Windy Day

by Winifred Howard

Have you been at sea on a windy day

When the water’s blue

And the sky is too,

And showers of spray

Come sweeping the decks

And the sea is dotted

With little flecks

Of foam, like daisies gay;

When there’s salt on your lips,

In your eyes and hair,

And you watch other ships

Go riding there?

Sailors are happy,

And birds fly low

To see how close they can safely go

To the waves as they heave and roll.

Then wheeling, they soar

Mounting up to the sky,

Where billowy clouds

Go floating by!

Oh, there’s fun for you

And there’s fun for me

At sea

On a windy day!

Earthsleep

Winter Magpie  Claude Monet

from Lines: The Cold Earth Slept Below

By Percy Byssche Shelley

The cold earth slept below;

Above the cold sky shone;

And all around,

With a chilling sound,

From caves of ice and fields of snow

The breath of night like death did flow

Beneath the sinking moon.

The wintry hedge was black;

The green grass was not seen;

The birds did rest

On the bare thorn’s breast,

Whose roots, beside the pathway track,

Had bound their folds o’er many a crack

Which the frost had made between.

Mood Change

from Winter Album  Imao Keinen  

Dust of Snow

By Robert Frost

The way a crow

Shook down on me

The dust of snow

From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart

A change of mood

And saved some part

Of a day I had rued

Folly

Love in an Italian Theater  Jean Antoine Watteau

Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind 

by William Shakespeare 

from As You Like It

Blow, blow, thou winter wind

Thou art not so unkind

As man's ingratitude;

Thy tooth is not so keen,

Because thou art not seen,

Although thy breath be rude.

Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:

Most freindship if feigning, most loving mere folly:

Then heigh-ho, the holly!

This life is most jolly.

Freeze, freeze thou bitter sky,

That does not bite so nigh

As benefits forgot:

Though thou the waters warp,

Thy sting is not so sharp

As a friend remembered not.

Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:

Most freindship if feigning, most loving mere folly:

Then heigh-ho, the holly!

This life is most jolly.

Winter's Song

Village at Winter at Midnight  Jacob van Ruisdael

"Be Off!"

 by Victor Hugo

"Be off!" say Winter's snows;

"Now it's my turn to sing!"

So, startled, quivering,

Not daring to oppose

(Our fortitude grows dim in

The face of a Quos ego),

Away, my songs, must we go

Before those virile women!

Rain. We are forced to fly,

Everywhere, utterly.

End of the comedy.

Come, swallows, it's good-bye.

Wind, sleet. The branches sway,

Writhing their stunted limbs,

And off the white smoke swims

Across the heavens' gray.

A pallid yellow lingers

Over the chilly dale.

My keyhole blows a gale

Onto my frozen fingers.

Winter's Pull

A Snowy Landscape  Cuno Amiet

Spellbound

by Emily Brontë

The night is darkening round me,

The wild winds coldly blow;

But a tyrant spell has bound me

And I cannot, cannot go.

The giant trees are bending

Their bare boughs weighed with snow.

And the storm is fast descending,

And yet I cannot go.

Clouds beyond clouds above me,

Wastes beyond wastes below;

But nothing dear can move me;

I will not, cannot go.

Wintertime Noises

An Old Man's Winter Night 

by Robert Frost

All out of doors looked darkly in at him

Through the thin frost, almost in separate stars,

That gathers on the pane in empty rooms.

What kept his eyes from giving back the gaze

Was the lamp tilted near them in his hand.

What kept him from remembering what it was

That brought him to that creaking room was age.

He stood with barrels round him -- at a loss.

And having scared the cellar under him

In clomping there, he scared it once again

In clomping off; -- and scared the outer night,

Which has its sounds, familiar, like the roar

Of trees and crack of branches, common things,

But nothing so like beating on a box.

A light he was to no one but himself

Where now he sat, concerned with he knew what,

A quiet light, and then not even that.

He consigned to the moon, such as she was,

So late-arising, to the broken moon

As better than the sun in any case

For such a charge, his snow upon the roof,

His icicles along the wall to keep;

And slept. The log that shifted with a jolt

Once in the stove, disturbed him and he shifted,

And eased his heavy breathing, but still slept.

One aged man -- one man -- can't keep a house,

A farm, a countryside, or if he can,

It's thus he does it of a winter night.

A Wee Bit o' Scotland in the Winter

A Flock of Sheep in a Snowstorm  Joseph Farquharson

A Winter Night

by Robert Burns

When biting Boreas, fell and doure,

Sharp shivers thro' the leafless bow'r;

When Phoebus gies a short-liv'd glow'r,

Far south the lift,

Dim-dark'ning thro' the flaky show'r,

Or whirling drift:

Ae night the storm the steeples rocked,

Poor Labour sweet in sleep was locked,

While burns, wi' snawy wreeths upchoked,

Wild-eddying swirl,

Or thro' the mining outlet bocked,

Down headlong hurl.

List'ning, the doors an' winnocks rattle,

I thought me on the ourie cattle,

Or silly sheep, wha bide this brattle

O' winter war,

And thro' the drift, deep-lairing, sprattle,

Beneath a scar.

Ilk happing bird, wee, helpless thing!

That, in the merry months o' spring,

Delighted me to hear thee sing,

What comes o' thee?

Whare wilt thou cow'r thy chittering wing

An' close thy e'e?

Ev'n you on murd'ring errands toil'd,

Lone from your savage homes exil'd,

The blood-stain'd roost, and sheep-cote spoil'd

My heart forgets,

While pityless the tempest wild

Sore on you beats.

Winter Nights

Two Venitian Ladies  Vittore Carpaccio

Now Winter Nights Enlarge

by Thomas Campion

Now winter nights enlarge 

This number of their hours; 

And clouds their storms discharge 

Upon the airy towers.

Let now the chimneys blaze 

And cups o'erflow with wine, 

Let well-tuned words amaze 

With harmony divine... 

This time doth well dispense 

With lovers' long discourse; 

Much speech hath some defense, 

Though beauty no remorse. 

All do not all things well:

Some measures comely tread, 

Some knotted riddles tell, 

Some poems smoothly read. 

The summer hath his joys, 

And winter his delights; 

Though love and all his pleasures are but toys 

 They shorten tedious nights.

Sleigh Ride

Central Park Winter Skating Pond    Currier and Ives

The First Sleigh-Ride

by Evaleen Stein

O happy time of fleecy rime 

And falling flakes, and O 

The glad surprise in baby eyes 

That never saw the snow!

Down shining ways the flying sleighs 

Go jingling by, and see! 

Beside the gate the horses wait 

And neigh for you and me!

Snowdrift   Frederick Judd Waugh

Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening

by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound’s the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

Winter in the City

Snow in New York   Robert Henri

Winter

                             by Dorothy Aldis

The street cars are

Like frosted cakes --

All covered up

With cold snowflakes.

The horses' hoofs

Scrunch on the street;

Their eyelashes

Are white with sleet.

And everywhere

The people go --

With faces tickled

By the snow.

Through the Eyes of Love

A Lady and Two Gentlemen  Johannes Vermeer

Sonnet 100
                  by William Shakespeare
Where art thou, Muse, that thou forget'st so long
To speak of that which gives thee all thy might?
Spend'st thou thy fury on some worthless song,
Darkening thy power to lend base subjects light?
Return, forgetful Muse, and straight redeem
In gentle numbers time so idly spent;
Sing to the ear that doth thy lays esteem
And gives thy pen both skill and argument.
Rise, resty Muse, my love's sweet face survey,
If Time have any wrinkle graven there;
If any, be a satire to decay,
And make Time's spoils despised every where.
Give my love fame faster than Time wastes life;
So thou prevent'st his scythe and crooked knife.