Painting, Poetry

Crying, My Little One

4 Comments
Life of Christ: Flight into Egypt. Giotto di Bondone

 

Crying, My Little One

Christina Rossetti, 1893

 

Crying, my little one, footsore and weary?

Fall asleep, pretty one, warm on my shoulder:

I must tramp on through the winter night dreary,

While snow falls on me colder and colder.

 

You are my one, and I have not another;

Sleep soft, my darling, my trouble and treasure;

Sleep warm and soft in the arms of your mother,

Dreaming of pretty things, dreaming of pleasure.

 

A Little Poetry—This poem comes from Rossetti’s nursery rhyme collection Sing Song.

A Little Music—Natalie Merchant sings “Crying, My Little One” (a rearrangement of the original lines) in her album Leave Your Sleep; you can listen to the entire track on YouTube. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNsmjZzdAf4>

4 thoughts on “Crying, My Little One”

    1. The blue paint, especially, of Giotto’s al frescos have seriously deteriorated with time, flaking from the plaster due to his ‘al secco’ technique. Like you, I actually enjoy the effect. I hope, though, that they have found a way to arrest the deterioration process.

  2. I recently read a way to make paintings looked aged and crackingly al-fresco like that (by applying certain chemicals), and it also preserves the painting at the same time . . . Maybe the museum where it is held has preserved it while at the same time, almost freezing it’s old effect.

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