Albert Bierstadt - Giant Redwood Trees of California, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Le Nozze di Figaro, James Whitcomb Riley - The Raggedy Man

Albert Bierstadt painted this wonderful painting of the California Redwoods.  If you look up close you can see how tiny the people are in contrast with the majestic pines.  I thought the little waterfall and pool were also lovely.  

Giant Redwood Trees of California by Albert Bierstadt

There are a couple more pieces of music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart that I would like to feature before we move on.  One is the overture from the opera The Marriage of Figero called Le Nozze di Figaro.  I hope you enjoy this lovely piece of music. Mozart - Marriage of Figaro - Overture. 


James Whitcomb Riley was sometimes called the children's poet.  Here are two links to biographical sketches.  The first is also a good source of his wonderful poetry.  
James Whitcomb Riley Com
A Short Biography of America's Children's Poet

Today's poem - The Raggedy Man

O The Raggedy Man! He works fer Pa;
An' he's the goodest man ever you saw!
He comes to our house every day,
An' waters the horses, an' feeds 'em hay;
An' he opens the shed - an' we all ist laugh
When he drives out our little old wobble-ly calf;
An' nen - ef our hired girl says he can -
He milks the cow fer 'Lizabuth Ann. -
Ain't he a' awful good Raggedy Man?
Raggedy! Raggedy! Raggedy Man!
W'y, the Raggedy Man -he's ist so good,
He splits the kindlin'4 an' chops the wood;
An' nen he spades in our garden, too,
An' does most things 'at boys can't do. -
He clumbed clean up in our big tree
An' shooked a' apple6 down fer me -
An' 'nother 'n' too, fer 'Lizabuth Ann -
An' 'nuther 'n' too, fer The Raggedy Man. -
Ain't he a' awful kind Raggedy Man?
Raggedy! Raggedy! Raggedy Man!
An' The Raggedy Man one time say he,
Pick' roast' rambos from a' orchurd-tree,
An' et 'em - all ist roast' an hot! -
An' it's so, too! - 'cause a corn-crib got
Afire one time an' all burn' down
On "The Smoot Farm," 'bout four mile from town -
On "The Smoot Farm"! Yes - an' the hired han'
'At worked there nen 'uz The Raggedy Man! -
Ain't he the beatin'est Raggedy Man?
Raggedy! Raggedy! Raggedy Man!
The Raggedy Man's so good an' kind
He'll be our "horsey," an "haw" an' mind
Ever'thing 'at you make him do -
An' won't run off - 'less you want him to!
I drived him wunst way down our lane
An' he got skeered, when it 'menced to rain,
An' ist rared up an' squealed and run
Purt' nigh away! - an' it's all in fun!
Nene he skeered ag'in at a' old tin can...
Whoa! y' old runaway Raggedy Man!
Raggedy! Raggedy! Raggedy Man!
An' The Raggedy Man, he knows most rhymes,
An' tells 'em, ef I be good, sometimes:
Knows 'bout Giunts, an' Griffuns, an' Elves,
An' the Squidgicum-Squees 'at swallers the'rselves:
An', rite by the pump in our pasture-lot,
He showed me the hole 'at the Wunks is got,
'At lives 'way deep in the ground, an' can
Turn into me, er 'Lizabeth Ann!
Er Ma, er Pa, er The Raggedy Man!
Ain't he a funny old Raggedy Man?
Raggedy! Raggedy! Raggedy Man!
An' wunst, when The Raggedy Man come late,
An' pigs ist root' thru the garden-gate,
He 'tend like the pigs 'uz bears an' said,
"Old Bear-shooter'll shoot 'em dead!"
An' race' an' chase' 'em, an' they'd ist run
When he pint his hoe at 'em like it's a gun
An' go "Bang!-Bang!" nen 'tend he stan'
An' load up his gun ag'in! Raggedy Man!
He's an old Bear-Shooter Raggedy Man!
Raggedy! Raggedy! Raggedy Man!
An' sometimes The Raggedy Man lets on
We're little prince-children, an' old King's gone
To git more money, an' lef' us there -
And Robbers is ist thick ever'where:
An' nen - ef we all won't cry, fer shore -
The Raggedy Man he'll come and "splore
The Castul-Halls," an' steal the "gold" -
An' steal us, too, an' grab an' hold
An' pack us off to his old "Cave"! - An'
Haymow's the "cave" o' The Raggedy Man! -
Raggedy! Raggedy! Raggedy Man!
The Raggedy Man - one time, when he
Wuz makin' a little bow-'n'-orry fer me,
Says "When you're big like your Pa is,
Air you go' to keep a fine store like his -
An' be a rich merchunt - an' wear fine clothes? -
Er what air you go' to be, goodness knows?"
An' nen he laughed at 'Lizabuth Ann,
An' I says "'M go' to be a nice Raggedy Man!"
I'm ist go' to be a nice Raggedy Man!
Raggedy! Raggedy! Raggedy Man!

Albert Bierstadt - The Oregon Trail, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Serenade No. 13 for Strings, James Whitcomb Riley - When the Frost is on the punkin

The Oregon Trail by Albert Bierstadt is another example of his marvelous far-reaching scenes of grand landscapes.  In this painting you also have the human element and a reference to history.  His skies are wonderfully dramatic and colorful but this doesn't diminish his careful attention to portraying realistically the details in the foreground.  This painting was painted in 1869 and is 30 7/8 inches by 49 3/8 inches. It would be fun to see this painting  up close in full size....

The Oregon Trail - Albert Bierstadt

Today's featured piece by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is Serenade No. 13 for Strings.  Hear it performed here



Today's poem, When the Frost is on the Punkin, has been on my mind all Fall. It is by James Whitcomb Riley Here it is.  Hope you enjoy it.  Next week we'll do the biographical sketches of our new poet.

You may enjoy this  YouTube video of Kent Risley reciting this poem.

01 - When the Frost is on the Punkin

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock,
And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin' turkey-cock,
And the clackin' of the guineys, and the cluckin' of the hens,
And the rooster's hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;
O, it's then's the times a feller is a-feelin' at his best,
With the risin' sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,
As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes to feed the stock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.
They's something kindo' harty-like about the atmusfere
When the heat of summer's over and the coolin' fall is here --
Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossums on the trees,
And the mumble of the hummin'-birds and buzzin' of the bees;
But the air's so appetizin'; and the landscape through the haze
Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days
Is a pictur' that no painter has the colorin' to mock --
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.
The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn,
And the raspin' of the tangled leaves, as golden as the morn;
The stubble in the furries -- kindo' lonesome-like, but still
A-preachin' sermons to us of the barns they growed to fill;
The strawsack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed;
The hosses in theyr stalls below -- the clover overhead! --
O, it sets my hart a-clickin' like the tickin' of a clock,
When the frost is on the punkin, and the fodder's in the shock!
Then your apples all is gethered, and the ones a feller keeps
Is poured around the celler-floor in red and yeller heaps;
And your cider-makin's over, and your wimmern-folks is through
With their mince and apple-butter, and theyr souse and saussage, too!
I don't know how to tell it -- but ef sich a thing could be
As the Angles wantin' boardin', and they'd call around on me --
I'd want to 'commodate 'em -- all the whole-indurin' flock --
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock!

Albert Bierstadt - , Wolfgang Amadeaus Mozart - Violin Concerto No. 1 ,

If you haven't had a chance yet to look at the many gorgeous paintings by Albert Bierstadt you can view them on this link -http://www.albertbierstadt.org/
Here is another fine painting by this skilled artist.  He manages to capture this wave and the light shining through it as well as the rocks, shells and sand of the seashore.  This might be a fun painting to try to copy in watercolor or colored pencil.




This is the first of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Violin Concertos.  It was written in 1775 when Mozart was only 19.  It has three parts with a slower movement sandwiched between two faster movements. The following is a definition of "concerto" by Wikipedia:  A concerto is a musical composition usually composed in three parts or movements, in which (usually) one solo instrument (for instance, a piano, violin, cello or flute) is accompanied by an orchestra.
You can listen to Mozart's Concerto No. 1 here

I am reluctant to leave John Greenleaf Whittier and his wonderful poetry but it's time to move on to another poet.  There are many more fine poems he has written - we've barely scratched the surface.  If you would like to continue with this poet here are a couple of links to more of his works. 
Ambleside Online - John Greenleaf Whittier
 Poet's Corner - John Greenleaf Whittier
 Poem Hunter = John Greenleaf Whittier
 A final poem by John Greenleaf Whittier -

              The Barefoot Boy

BLESSINGS on thee, little man,

Barefoot boy, with cheek of tan!

With thy turned-up pantaloons,

And thy merry whistled tunes;

With thy red lip, redder still

Kissed by strawberries on the hill;

With the sunshine on thy face,

Through thy torn brim's jaunty grace;

From my heart I give thee joy,-

I was once a barefoot boy!

Prince thou art,- the grown-up man

Only is republican.

Let the million-dollared ride!

Barefoot, trudging at his side,

Thou hast more than he can buy

In the reach of ear and eye,-

Outward sunshine, inward joy:

Blessings on thee, barefoot boy!

Oh for boyhood's painless play,

Sleep that wakes in laughing day,

Health that mocks the doctor's rules,

Knowledge never learned of schools,

Of the wild bee's morning chase,

Of the wild flower's time and place,

Flight of fowl and habitude

Of the tenants of the wood;

How the tortoise bears his shell,

How the woodchuck digs his cell,

And the round mole sinks his well

How the robin feeds her young,

How the oriole's nest is hung;

Where the whitest lilies blow,

Where the freshest berries grow,

Where the groundnut trails its vine,

Where the wood grape's clusters shine;

Of the black wasp's cunning way,

Mason of his walls of clay,

And the architectural plans

Of gray hornet artisans!-

For, eschewing books and tasks,

Nature answers all he asks;

Hand in hand with her he walks,

Face to face with her he talks,

Part and parcel of her joy,-

Blessings on thee, barefoot boy!

Oh for boyhood's time of June,

Crowding years in one brief moon,

When all things I heard or saw

Me, their master, waited for.

I was rich in flowers and trees,

Humming birds and honeybees;

For my sport the squirrel played,

Plied the snouted mole his spade;

For my taste the blackberry cone

Purpled over hedge and stone;

Laughed the brook for my delight

Through the day and through the night,

Whispering at the garden wall,

Talked with me from fall to fall;

Mine the sand-rimmed pickerel pond,

Mine the walnut slopes beyond,

Mine, on bending orchard trees,

Apples of Hesperides!

Still, as my horizon grew,

Larger grew my riches too;

All the world I saw or knew

Seemed a complex Chinese toy,

Fashioned for a barefoot boy!

Oh for festal dainties spread,

Like my bowl of milk and bread,-

Pewter spoon and bowl of wood,

On the doorstone, gray and rude!

O're me, like a regal tent,

Cloudy-ribbed, the sunset bent,

Purple-curtained, fringed with gold;

Looped in many a wind-swung fold;

While for music came the play

Of the pied frog's orchestra;

And to light the noisy choir,

Lit the fly his lamp of fire.

I was monarch: pomp and joy

Waited on thebarefoot boy!

Cheerily, then my little man,

Live and laugh, as boyhood can!

Though the flinty slopes be hard,

Stubble-speared the new-mown sward,

Every morn shall lead thee through

Fresh baptisms of the dew;

Every evening from thy feet

Shall the cool wind kiss the heat:

All too soon these feet must hide

In the prison cells of pride,

Lose the freedom of the sod,

Like a colt's for work be shod,

Made to tread the mills of toi,

Up and down in ceaseless moil:

Happy if their track be found

Never on forbidden ground;

Happy if they sink not in

Quick and treacherous sands of sin.

Ah! that thou shouldst know thy joy

Ere it passes, barefoot boy!

John Greenleaf Whittier

Albert Bierstadt - Among the Sierra Nevadas, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Clarinet Concerto in A Major, John Greenleaf Whittier -

This lovely painting by  Albert Bierstad is a beautiful mountain scene.  He is extravagant in his wonderful skies and does a great job of portraying the grandeur of the scene.

Albert Bierstadt - Among the Sierra Nevadas

This week's piece by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is Clarinet Concerto in A Major is a rather sedate piece but beautiful and peaceful.  For more information on the Clarinet and to see a picture of one read here.

A final celebration of Fall as we wait for winter's snows (at least here in the Midwest) with a poem by John Greenleaf Whittier. 
The Huskers
It was late in mild October, and the long autumnal rain
Had left the summer harvest-fields all green with grass again;
The first sharp frosts had fallen, leaving all the woodlands gay
With the hues of summer's rainbow, or the meadow flowers of May.

Through a thin, dry mist, that morning, the sun rose broad and red,
At first a rayless disk of fire, he brightened as he sped;
Yet, even his noontide glory fell chastened and subdued,
On the cornfields and the orchards, and softly pictured wood.

And all that quiet afternoon, slow sloping to the night,
He wove with golden shuttle the haze with yellow light;
Slanting through the painted beeches, he glorified the hill;
And, beneath it, pond and meadow lay brighter, greener still.

And shouting boys in woodland haunts caught glimpses of that sky,
Flecked by the many-tinted leaves, and laughed, they knew not why;
And school-girls, gay with aster-flowers, beside the meadow brooks,
Mingled the glow of autumn with the sunshine of sweet looks.

From spire and barn looked westerly the patient weathercocks;
But even the birches on the hill stood motionless as rocks.
No sound was in the woodlands, save the squirrel's dropping shell,
And the yellow leaves among the boughs, low rustling as they fell.

The summer grains were harvested; the stubblefields lay dry,
Where June winds rolled, in light and shade, the pale green waves of rye;
But still, on gentle hill-slopes, in valleys fringed with wood,
Ungathered, bleaching in the sun, the heavy corn crop stood.

Bent low, by autumn's wind and rain, through husks that, dry and sere,
Unfolded from their ripened charge, shone out the yellow ear;
Beneath, the turnip lay concealed, in many a verdant fold,
And glistened in the slanting light the pumpkin's sphere of gold.

There wrought the busy harvesters; and many a creaking wain
Bore slowly to the long barn-floor is load of husk and grain;
Till broad and red, as when he rose, the sun sank down, at last,
And like a merry guest's farewell, the day in brightness passed.

And lo! as through the western pines, on meadow, stream, and pond,
Flamed the red radiance of a sky, set all afire beyond,
Slowly o'er the eastern sea-bluffs a milder glory shone,
And the sunset and the moonrise were mingled into one!

As thus into the quiet night the twilight lapsed away,
And deeper in the brightening moon the tranquil shadows lay;
From many a brown old farm-house, and hamlet without name,
Their milking and their home-tasks done, the merry huskers came.

Swung o'er the heaped-up harvest, from pitchforks in the mow,
Shone dimly down the lanterns on the pleasant scene below;
The growing pile of husks behind, the golden ears before,
And laughing eyes and busy hands and brown cheeks glimmering o'er.

Half hidden, in a quiet nook, serene of look and heart,
Talking their old times over, the old men sat apart;
While up and down the unhusked pile, or nestling in its shade,
At hide-and-seek, with laugh and shout, the happy children played.

Urged by the good host's daughter, a maiden young and fair,
Lifting to light her sweet blue eyes and pride of soft brown hair,
The master of the village school, sleek of hair and smooth of tongue,
To the quaint tune of some old psalm, a husking-ballad sung.

Albert Bierstadt-Harbor Scene, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Turkish March, John Greenleaf Whittier - Storm on Lake Asquam

Albert Bierstadt was a Hudson River School painter like Thomas Cole.  His paintings are wonderfully detailed scenes of early America in a realistic style. 

 Two sites with background biographies follow:  Wikipedia - Albert Bierstadt or Albert Bierstadt The second site has many of his paintings that you can view.  

Our music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart today is a light energetic piano piece called Turkish March.

 Wonderful descriptive words follow in this week's poem by
 John Greenleaf Whittier -

                     Storm on Lake Asquam
A cloud, like that the old-time Hebrew saw
On Carmel prophesying rain, began
To lift itself o'er wooded Cardigan,
Growing and blackening. Suddenly, a flaw
Of chill wind menaced; then a strong blast beat
Down the long valley's murmuring pines, and woke
The noon-dream of the sleeping lake, and broke
Its smooth steel mirror at the mountains' feet.
Thunderous and vast, a fire-veined darkness swept
Over the rough pine-bearded Asquam range;
A wraith of tempest, wonderful and strange,
From peak to peak the cloudy giant stepped.
One moment, as if challenging the storm,
Chocorua's tall, defiant sentinel
Looked from his watch-tower; then the shadow fell,
And the wild rain-drift blotted out his form.
And over all the still unhidden sun,
Weaving its light through slant-blown veils of rain,
Smiled on the trouble, as hope smiles on pain;
And, when the tumult and the strife were done,
With one foot on the lake and one on land,
Framing within his crescent's tinted streak
A far-off picture of the Melvin peak,
Spent broken clouds the rainbow's angel spanned.

Frederic Remington - Small Oaks, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 21 - Andante, John Greenleaf Whittier - Dear Lord and Father of Mankind

A final painting by Frederic Remington this week. Perhaps I was drawn to this painting because our family enjoys camping.  The book I found this painting in said that this painting "reflects the comfortable Adirondack-style camping favored by the artist and his wife."  

Small Oaks - Frederic Remington

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart -

 Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 21 - Andante

Our poem this week by John Greenleaf Whittier is sung as a hymn.
you can hear it here
or print an alternate tune (one I'm more familiar with) here
or download tunes from The Cyber Hymnal here 

            Dear Lord and Father of Mankind
Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
Forgive our foolish ways;
Reclothe us in our rightful mind,
In purer lives Thy service find,
In deeper reverence, praise.

In simple trust like theirs who heard,
Beside the Syrian sea,
The gracious calling of the Lord,
Let us, like them, without a word,
Rise up and follow Thee.

O Sabbath rest by Galilee,
O calm of hills above,
Where Jesus knelt to share with Thee
The silence of eternity,
Interpreted by love!

With that deep hush subduing all
Our words and works that drown
The tender whisper of Thy call,
As noiseless let Thy blessing fall
As fell Thy manna down.

Drop Thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace.

Breathe through the heats of our desire
Thy coolness and Thy balm;
Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still, small voice of calm.

Frederic Remington - Radisson and Groseilliers, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, John Greenleaf Whittier - Requirement

I was thinking of moving on from Frederic Remington but I found two more paintings in a library book on Remington and Russell that are quite different from the others we've done and I'd like to feature them this week and next before we move on.  Remington was asked to do an illustrated series on the early explorers of North America.  This is a picture of French voyageurs.  One thing I noticed, even though the canoe is almost horizontal in the picture, the artist manages to make it look like the right side is more distant and the left end is much closer.  He does this by making the right side of the canoe about half the height of the left side.  He also makes more of the contrast between light and dark in the closer end of the canoe and more detail in the Indians in the front (left side).  I've mentioned before Remington's common use of red, yellow and blue and you notice that in this painting.  Artists show water by using reflections - this might be a fun painting to try to copy.  The French explorer stands in the middle of the canoe.  He is dressed quite differently from the Indians.  

Radisson and Groseilliers - Frederic Remington

An energetic piece by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Symphony #40. 
 Mozart - Symphony No. 40 in G minor

John Greenleaf Whittier's poem today has some meaty thoughts clothed in beautiful language.  

                           Requirement
We live by Faith; but Faith is not the slave
Of text and legend. Reason's voice and God's,
Nature's and Duty's, never are at odds.
What asks our Father of His children, save
Justice and mercy and humility,
A reasonable service of good deeds,
Pure living, tenderness to human needs,
Reverence and trust, and prayer for light to see
The Master's footprints in our daily ways?
No knotted scourge nor sacrificial knife,
But the calm beauty of an ordered life
Whose very breathing is unworded praise!--
A life that stands as all true lives have stood,
Firm-rooted in the faith that God is Good.