Mary Cassatt - , Frederic Chopin - Ballade No. 1 in G minor, William Wordsworth - Daffodils

This painting by Mary Cassatt is different than many I have featured in that the Mother and child are actively interacting with each other.  Love that red hair!  The greens in the background balance the warm skin tones and clothing nicely.

Frederic Chopin  Ballade No. 1 in G minor played by Vladimir Horowitz. here

This Wikipedia article explains what a Ballade was.  Chopin was the first to use it as a musical form.

William Wordsworth's poem echoes Charlotte Mason's thoughts on the long lasting benefit of nature study.  

                  Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,--
A host, of golden daffodils,
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Outdid the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company!
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.