Greetings Readers!
Here is the next volume of our series — The Wisdom of Art. This series invites us to pause from our busy lives to explore the wisdom of art and poetry. Read the previous meditations — No Man is an Island and Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.
Here is a painting, a poem, and a bit of prose…
The Monk by the Sea (Painting)
The Monk by the Sea is an oil painting by the German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich. It was painted between 1808 and 1810 in Dresden and was first shown with the painting The Abbey in the Oakwood in the Berlin Academy exhibition of 1810. On Friedrich's request, The Monk by the Sea was hung above The Abbey in the Oakwood.
“The painter should paint not only what he has in front of him, but also what he sees inside himself. If he sees nothing within, then he should stop painting what is in front of him.”
― Caspar David Friedrich
The Road Not Taken (Poem)
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
by Robert Frost
The Art of Discernment (Prose)
Frost raises a harsh truth — none of us can be one traveler. It’s not possible to embark on two paths simultaneously. As Frost’s traveler did, one must discern and ultimately make a move.
