And trade is art, and art's philosophy,
In Paris.
-Elizabeth Barrett Browning,
Aurora Leigh, 1857
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Forgotten Lore
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore -Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven, 1845 |
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All Was Still
(Notre Dame)
And all was still, save that the hill Was telling of the sound. -Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner |
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Flames of the Night
(Sainte-Chapelle)
Whatever flames upon the night Man's own resinous heart has fed. -William Butler Yeats, Two Songs from a Play, 1928 |
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A Maker of Patterns
(Sainte-Chapelle)
A mathematician, like a painter or a poet, is a maker of patterns. If his patterns are more permanent than theirs, it is because they are made with ideas. -Godfrey Harold Hardy, A Mathematician's Apology, 1940 |
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Burning Roof
(Conciergerie)
The broken wall, the burning roof and tower, And Agamemnon dead. -William Butler Yeats, Leda and the Swan, 1928 |
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Passing in the Night
(from our window at the small but cozy Hotel Central)
Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing, Only a signal shown and distant voice in the darkness; So the ocean of life, we pass and speak one another, Only a look and a voice, then darkness again and silence. -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Tales of a Wayside Inn, Part III, The Theologian's Tale, 1873 |
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Between the Light and Me
(Hotel Central)
Between the light--and me-- And then the Windows failed--and then I could not see to see-- -Emily Dickinson, I Heard a Fly Buzz |
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Dark Wisdom
(statue of Napoleon, Invalides)
Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state, A being darkly wise, and rudely great: With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side, With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride, He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest, In doubt to deem himself a God, or Beast.... -Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man, 1733 |
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Silent Form
(Rodin Museum)
Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought As doth Eternity: Cold Pastoral! When old age shall this generation waste, Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st, Beauty is truth, truth beauty, -- that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. -John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn, 1819 |
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Face of Silence
(Rodin Museum)
Thou still unravished bride of quietness, Thou foster-child of silence and slow time -John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn |
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Window Niche
(Rodin Museum)
Lo! in yon brilliant window-niche How statue-like I see thee stand, -Edgar Allan Poe, To Helen, 1831 |
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Riding the Storm
(Arc De Triomphe)
God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform; He plants his footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm. -William Cowper, Light Shining Out of Darkness, 1772 |
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The Phantom Listener
(Pont d'léna)
But only a host of phantom listeners That dwelt in the lone house then Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight To that voice from the world of men -Walter De La Mare, The Listeners |
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In the West Garden
(Place Des Vosges)
The leaves fall early this autumn, in wind. The paired butterflies are already yellow with August Over the grass in the West garden -Ezra Pound, The River-merchant's Wife: A Letter |
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A Lantern Aloft
(Place Des Vosges)
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch Of the North Church tower as a signal light -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Tales of a Wayside Inn, Part I, Paul Revere's Ride, 1863 |
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Hope Springs Eternal
(Place Des Vosges)
Hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never Is, but always To be blest: The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home, Rests and expatiates in a life to come. -Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man, Epistle I, 1733 |