Raphael - St. George Fighting the Dragon, Vivaldi - Gloria, Rainer Maria Rilke - For Hans Carossa, Robert Louis Stevenson - Escape at Bedtime

We're already on the third month of this quarter, so when April begins we'll be starting with a fresh artist, musician and poet.  This week and next we're looking at two paintings by Raphael  depicting the story of St. George and the Dragon (this link also has various paintings of this story by more artists). This story is new to me, but I noticed that a book of fairy tales my daughter picked up at the library yesterday included a story of St. George and the Dragon so I think we'll read it aloud. Here is a link to the Listings at DealOz for St. George and the Dragon stories. I haven't read any of them so I don't know if they are good or not. You  might also check your local library.

St. George Fighting the Dragon

A beautiful piece of choir music today by Vivaldi - Gloria

Rainer Maria Rilke can take just a few descriptive words and lead us to think deeply. 

                 For Hans Carossa

Losing too is still ours; and even forgetting
still has a shape in the kingdom of transformation.
When something's let go of, it circles; and though we are
rarely the center
of the circle, it draws around us its unbroken, marvelous
curve.

Robert Louis Stevenson had such a wonderful grasp of childhood. 

                Escape at Bedtime

The lights from the parlour and kitchen shone out
      Through the blinds and the windows and bars;
And high overhead and all moving about,
      There were thousands of millions of stars.
There ne’er were such thousands of leaves on a tree,
      Nor of people in church or the Park,
As the crowds of the stars that looked down upon me,
      And that glittered and winked in the dark.

The Dog, and the Plough, and the Hunter, and all,
      And the star of the sailor, and Mars,
These shown in the sky, and the pail by the wall
      Would be half full of water and stars.
They saw me at last, and they chased me with cries,
      And they soon had me packed into bed;
But the glory kept shining and bright in my eyes,
      And the stars going round in my head.