Land of Expectation

"Here vigour failed the lofty fantasy:

        But now was turning my desire and will,

        Even as a wheel that equally is moved,

The Love which moves the sun and other stars."

Dante, Divine Comedy (Paradiso: Canto XXXIII 142-145), [Henry Wadsworth Longfellow translation]

The power of dreams, and my own visions of a 'Paradiso':

I write of a land of expectation,

Of hope, of harmony, of purity,

A horizon beneath a scarlet sunset

Of destiny, to dance upon the greenery

Interspersed with streams, that flow wild and free

As a blissful dream, and their shallow banks

From which to dip my feet, into the tide

That guides the shy pebbles to pastures new.

Nightly, kind moon, would gaze upon the fields,

The dales, the deeps where the damsels weep;

Their golden hair the colour of the corn

That sits upon the soil and softly sleeps.

Eternity, in a sunrise, must come,

Dreams rest upon shoulders on barren sands

Flushed with despair, smited by a vengeful

God, whose cruel curses crash as angry waves

Upon undeserving cliffs, yet break off

Then time again come forth, see the gallant

Rock succumb to dust, as flames fade to ash.

Pray now for the hills, over distant seas,

For the blossoming of the root from the seed,

For the vine, the leaf, for a tranquil heath

That gives blessings unto a lonely peak

Since kissed by a breeze soft, gentle and sweet.

© Cecil Field

Dante's Dream at the Time of the Death of Beatrice - Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Seasonal Muse

We sit and weep in memory

Of days brushed by a Summer breeze -

Breeze that with its majestic hand

That guides the tides, the seas, the sands

Could seize and dry the falling tears,

The agonies and lonely fears.

Then does the Autumn come to greet

And drops its leaves there at our feet;

Crunch underfoot the fallen greens

And purples, blues of vibrant scenes.

Faint rays of sunlight sneak within

Our silent forest void of sin,

Where lovers waltz within the glades

Beneath the willow shadow's shades.

Yet Winter waits with eagerness

To quench his bitter loneliness.

Once trees be bare; a sombre sight

And clouds do shroud the calming light,

Howl bitter winds across the plains

As snow departs the Autumn rain,

For Pan does bring a frost that bites

Its victims in the lonely night.

Pray for Spring and the dawn again,

For birds to sing and call the names

Of lovers that they'd duly left

As Winter's curtain freely swept

Across the lands with evil eyes

As wilting flowers wept and died.

Their loved ones forced to flee to warmth;

Far South from home, abscond the storm

That blew all Nature's beauty far

From light into foreboding dark.

Then months in such a gloomy place

To pray in quiet for the day

When Sun shall shine with joyful love,

Gleam its blessings into the grove

Where flowers shall begin to grow

Just as they had a year ago;

Burst forth from buds to find their peace -

Await the pure of Summer's breeze.

Proserpine - Dante Gabriel Rossetti 

© Cecil Field

Welcome.

I have decided to start this blog, having deleted previous ones, as a new outlet for whatever I'm writing. I can't be bothered to launch myself into in depth explanations of my work at this moment in time, but it is all for your viewing pleasure; whether the writing creates feelings of passion or revulsion is not really my concern.

The Beguiling of Merlin - Edward Burne-Jones

Cecil.