Inscription surrounded by floral border: Snowdrop, by Clarence Bicknell

An image of Inscription surrounded by floral border: Snowdrop. Inscription surrounded by floral border: Snowdrop. Bicknell, Clarence (British, 1842-1918). Watercolour over graphite on paper, height, leaf, 326 mm, width, leaf, 255 mm, 1908. Part of: A Posy. Vellum-bound sketchbook containing leaves with an index at the end. Cover with brown leather ornamentation and remains of vellum closure straps.
Inscription(s): Recto, upper right; watercolour; 51. Recto; watercolour; Lone flower, hemmed in with snows, and white as they, / But hardier far, once more I see thee bend / Thy forehead, as if fearful to offend / Like an unbidden guest. Though day by day, / Storms, sallying from the mountain tops, waylay / The rising sun, and on the plains descend: / Yet art thou welcome, welcome as a friend / Whose zeal outruns his promise! Blue-eyed May / Shall soon behold this border thickly set / With bright jonquils, their odours lavishing / On the soft west-wind and his frolic peers; / Nor will I then thy modest grace forget, / Chaste snowdrop, venturous harbinger of spring, / And pensive monitor of fleeting years! / Wordsworth. Verso; watercolour; O darling spirits of the snow, / Who hide within your heart the green, Howe'er the wintry wind may blow, / The secret of the summer sheen / Ye smile to know. / By frozen rills, in woods and mead, / A mild pure sisterhood ye grow, / Who bend the meek and quit head / And are a token from below / From our dear dead. / As in their turf ye softly shine / Of innocent white lives they lead / With healing influence Divine / For souls who on their memory feed / World-worn like mine. / Roden Noel.

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Inscription surrounded by floral border: Snowdrop. Inscription surrounded by floral border: Snowdrop. Bicknell, Clarence (British, 1842-1918). Watercolour over graphite on paper, height, leaf, 326 mm, width, leaf, 255 mm, 1908. Part of: A Posy. Vellum-bound sketchbook containing leaves with an index at the end. Cover with brown leather ornamentation and remains of vellum closure straps. Inscription(s): Recto, upper right; watercolour; 51. Recto; watercolour; Lone flower, hemmed in with snows, and white as they, / But hardier far, once more I see thee bend / Thy forehead, as if fearful to offend / Like an unbidden guest. Though day by day, / Storms, sallying from the mountain tops, waylay / The rising sun, and on the plains descend: / Yet art thou welcome, welcome as a friend / Whose zeal outruns his promise! Blue-eyed May / Shall soon behold this border thickly set / With bright jonquils, their odours lavishing / On the soft west-wind and his frolic peers; / Nor will I then thy modest grace forget, / Chaste snowdrop, venturous harbinger of spring, / And pensive monitor of fleeting years! / Wordsworth. Verso; watercolour; O darling spirits of the snow, / Who hide within your heart the green, Howe'er the wintry wind may blow, / The secret of the summer sheen / Ye smile to know. / By frozen rills, in woods and mead, / A mild pure sisterhood ye grow, / Who bend the meek and quit head / And are a token from below / From our dear dead. / As in their turf ye softly shine / Of innocent white lives they lead / With healing influence Divine / For souls who on their memory feed / World-worn like mine. / Roden Noel.

Image data

Accession Number: PD.8-1980.f.27
Photograph copyright © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Aperture: f/19.0
Focal length: 80
Camera: Hasselblad H4D-31
Photographer name: Sam Cole
Image height: 1025 pixels
Image width: 784 pixels
Processed with: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.4 (Windows)
Filesize: 532.62kB
Exposure time: 1/125
ISO Speed: 100
Fnumber: 19/1

Key words

20th Century Bicknell border botanical British School Clarence Bicknell drawing Fitz_PDP floral flowers Galanthus handwriting handwritten illustrated illustration poem poetry poets sketch sketchbook snowdrops verses watercolour Winter writing

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            "Inscription surrounded by floral border: Snowdrop, by Clarence Bicknell"
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