#thomas woolner

[scholarofgloom]

[nostalgicacademia]

The Germ: Thoughts towards Nature In Poetry, Literature, and Art

“The Germ was a magazine established in 1850 at the beginning of the Pre-Raphaelite movement by its founding members Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and, editor and ‘historian’ of the movement, William Michael Rossetti. Born out of an idea of D G Rossetti’s, the magazine sought to circulate the creative work and radical ideas of the Pre-Raphaelites as expressed in poetry, literature and art.” 

— British Library

[thefugitivesaint]

Thomas Woolner (1825-1892), ‘Virgilia', ''Century Magazine'', 1883 Source 

[pre-raphaelisme]

All knowledge hath taught me, All sorrow hath brought me,      Are smothered sighs      That pleasure lies, Like the last gleam of evening's ray, So far and far away, – far away.       Under the cold moist herbs No wind the calm disturbs.      O when and where?      Nor here nor there. Grass cools my face, grief heats my heart. Will this life I swoon with never part?

Thomas Woolner, O When and Where

[lizardgoats]

The Pre-Raphelite Brotherhood was founded that year [1848] by a a group of young men who were determined 'ever to do battle against the frivolous art of the day.' Hunt and Millais were joined by the 'mysterious and un-English' Gabriel Rossetti, a poet from a brilliant Anglo-Italian family, who suggested they should confine themselves to the magic number seven and use a password. The other members were Fred Stephens and James Collinson, painters; Thomas Woolner, a sculptor, and Rosetti's brother William, who wrote art criticism in his spare time and was a very fine character., which Gabriel was not. They were all aged between nineteen and twenty-two. Other painters who did not join the secret seven (Ford Madox Brown, Charles Collins, Walter Deverell, Arthur Hughes) were also loosely called Pre-Raphelites. The group would last only for a short time and its members had quite different styles. The strongest bonds were between the two Rosettis, as was natural, and between Millais and Hunt. What they had in common was impatience with the old men who ran the Academy, and the fact that they all 'belonged to the middle or lower-middle class of society...Of any access to the "upper classes" through family ties there was not a trace.'

Effie: A Victorian Scandal - From Ruskin’s Wife to Millais’s Muse, by Merryn Williams

[pre-raphaelisme]

Thomas Woolner by Unknown, circa 1865

[imsuperfuckingangry]

"My Beautiful Lady" by Thomas Woolner (1850) and Why I Believe the "Lady" is the Ottoman Empire

In order to be popularized, in order to make something "trend", one has to appeal to the masses.

What did the "masses" want in 1850 London? Sadly, it looks like many well-to-do British men wanted nothing more than to abuse control by drugging, kidnapping, organ-harvesting, and murdering people (particularly women and children) across their empire.

Firstly, this poem likely caters to what his audience wanted.

That doesn't necessarily mean that's what the poem is about. I don't think this poem is 1). a love poem 2). a psychopathic poem about drugging and murdering women (although this is a common and beloved abuse for the author and his friends).

I think it's a subtweet, against geopolitical enemies.

“O lady with the sunlit hair!

Gün Ana is a Turkic solar deity. The goddess of life and fertility, warmth and health. She is patroness of the unfortunate, especially orphans. 

I think that's why this painting and the "lady" in it appears to have all the life, warmth, and health completely stripped. I think this was a painting that could serve as psychological warfare against women, the nuns who tried to protect them, and psychological warfare against the Ottoman Empire.

What do psychopathic men hate more than anything? Being called a "woman", being called "feminine"

What time she walketh under flowering May, I am quite sure the scented blossoms say, “O lady with the sunlit hair! “Stay, and drink our odorous air— “The incense that we bear:

A blossom is often used to symbolize a growing woman, a young girl, etc.

So, let's pretend the line reads, "I am quite sure the scented women say".

What is another word for "scented"? Perfumed.

But who are the "women"? The French.

Grasse, a town on the French Riviera, is recognized as the world's perfume capital, a title it has held for over three centuries.

A perfume factory in France during the 19th century:

“Stay, and drink our odorous air—

Thomas Woolner is speaking in the voice of France, acting as an inviting host (stay and drink our stinky, perfumed air!) to the Ottoman Empire. Why?

In 1850, France and the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) were shifting toward a close alliance.

“O lady with the sunlit hair! “Stay, and drink our odorous air— “The incense that we bear:

Incense = Catholic incense, often featuring frankincense and myrrh, is burned in churches to symbolize prayers rising, purification, and the presence of the divine. Used during Mass, funerals, and processions.

In 1850, France enacts the Falloux Law 

This law allowed Catholic congregations in France to open schools easily and allowed priests to teach, strengthening the Church's influence over youth.

“Your beauty, lady, we would ever shade; “Being near you, our sweetness might not fade.” If trees could be broken-hearted, I am sure that the green sap smarted, When my lady parted.

Thomas Woolner continues to bully the Ottoman Empire and France by mocking their alliance.

“Your beauty, lady, we would ever shade;

Your beauty, Ottoman Empire, we would forever protect.

“Being near you, our sweetness might not fade.”

If we are allied, it will be harder for anyone to topple us.

If trees could be broken-hearted, I am sure that the green sap smarted, When my lady parted.

"When my lady parted" is hinting at the fall of the Ottoman Empire, or possibly the Franco-Turkish war (1798–1801).

What I found to be true in the elite-geopolitical-strategist-pedophile-murderer's poetry when using the word "tree" is it means "men" or something foreboding, large, looming, or even silencing -- but I think it gets more specific than that. Possibly a specific type of man, maybe Turkish, maybe Irish.

When he says "if trees could be broken-hearted, I am sure that the green sap smarted" I take that to mean "if they had souls, I'm sure they would have cried for you...when you fell."

"Trees"

And this is a line from "Of My Lady in Death":

Within a huge tree’s steady shade, When resting from our walk, How pleasant was her talk!

This painting is called "Love and Death" by George Frederic Watts. The same artist who painted "Hope".

I love none by my lady’s name; Rose, Maud, or Grace, are all the same, So blank, so very tame.

I realize these are regions that were under British control at the time. Ireland, Scotland, and Greece.

Also important to note:

In early 1850, Britain forced a naval blockade of Greece via Lord Palmerston’s "gunboat diplomacy".

Poem: My Beautiful Lady From The Germ, Vol.1, by Thomas Woolner, 1850

[a-little-bit-pre-raphaelite]

Edward Robert Hughes as a Child, c. 1853-4, Arthur Hughes

Listening Boy, c.1874, Thomas Woolner