Half-blown rose
Something touching about the 'half-blown', that moment in a rose's beauty when it is heavy with the weight of its...
Heron-like paces
I love the idea of a human walk embodying the fastidious strut of the heron's dainty stride.
'He strode to...
How to write a paper
Heaney’s introduction to his translation of Beowulf praises Tolkien’s ‘epoch-making paper’, a lecture delivered in 1936 entitled ‘Beowulf: The Monsters...
Winter-defying hawk
What majesty in this triologism - a hawk thriving despite a New England winter.
'The warmest springs hardly allow me...
Time-free flight
Like his daughter Athena, time stops where he’s concerned. Time-free flight – perhaps one day we will master that too,...
Beam-borne planks
A poetic description of an ancient and abandoned bell tower; somehow 'beam-borne' implies flying rather than static, and I liked...
Many-coloured shield
A rich description of 17th century London, this appears to refer to Westminster Abbey, with lights brightly burning inside.
'Now...
Ash-covered Vulcan
Lady Folly blithely explains why it is better to be merry Bacchus (or Dionysius) than any of the more serious...
Raspberry-grey boulevards
Trying to imagine a raspberry-grey boulevard, and can only think of the grey of the road itself combined with a...
Light-hearted crew
May your crew be ever light-hearted.
Source: Arthur Ransome, Coot Club (London: Jonathan Cape, 2009 (1934)), p. 290
...
Lead-coloured cloud
This ‘lead-covered’ cloud symbolises the mood of the family as they approach the ‘grim North’, and soon they smell the...
Sun-splashy ripples
You can feel the warmth of a summer day with diaphanous wings darting over glittering ripples.
'She heard the rustling...
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