I love statues and suchlike works of art. Not all statues, of course. Just like a picture, for every thousand (or whatever figure) we see, one will strike us as important for some reason: we may love it or hate it but we will notice it. The moment I saw this statue (an enlarged version and details can be found at Soaring Through The World In Pictures on the posting entitled Stepping Stones: William Hamo Thorneycroft: 1878 which I posted earlier today) in the Kibble Palace last week I fell in love. Seldom have I seen such love and care brought to life from a block of marble. When it was first exhibited in Glasgow in 1880 it was accompanied by the couplet "Pausing with reluctant feet/where the stream and river meet" which, I have since discovered is from the poem Maidenhood by Longfellow. What a coincidence.
Why a coincidence? Two reasons: Firstly it links the statue with those of you in the USA who read this blog because Longfellow was American and secondly because only a short while ago Heather quoted from Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha which I subsequently included in a posting on 7 July entitled Lunch at Duck Bay.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 - 1882 was an amazing person whose talents were far wider than 'just' writing poetry.
