Auld Lang Syne

And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere !
And gies a hand o’ thine !
And we’ll tak a right gude-willie-waught,
for auld lang syne.

Robert Burns, Auld Lang Syne

Ladybug

"Every beetle is a gazelle in the eyes of its mother."

Moroccan Proverb

Pots

All this of Pot and Potter — Tell me, then,
Who is the Potter, pray, and who the Pot?

Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

Sunset

Swiftly walk over the western wave,
Spirit of Night!
Out of the misty eastern cave
Where, all the long and lone daylight,
Thou wovest dreams of joy and fear,
Which make thee terrible and dear, -
Swift be thy flight!

Percy Bysshe Shelley, To Night

Garden of Delight

Beloved, gaze in thine own heart,
The holy tree is growing there;
From joy the holy branches start,
And all the trembling flowers they bear.
The changing colours of its fruit
Have dowered the stars with merry light;
The surety of its hidden root
Has planted quiet in the night;
The shaking of its leafy head
Has given the waves their melody,
And made my lips and music wed,
Murmuring a wizard song for thee.

William Butler Yeats, The Two Trees

Illustration: William Morris, Garden of Delight, tapestry

The Lady of Shallot

Only reapers, reaping early,
In among the bearded barley
Hear a song that echoes cheerly
From the river winding clearly;
Down to tower'd Camelot;
And by the moon the reaper weary,
Piling sheaves in uplands airy,
Listening, whispers, " 'Tis the fairy
The Lady of Shalott."

Alfred Lord Tennyson, The Lady of Shallot

Illustration: The Lady of Shallot, John William Waterhouse

Christmas Day

"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year."

Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Winter Scene

Black are my steps on silver sod;
Thick blows my frosty breath abroad;
And tree and house, and hill and lake,
Are frosted like a wedding cake.

Robert Louis Stevenson, Winter-Time

Starry Night

Starry, starry night.
Paint your palette blue and grey,
Look out on a summer's day,
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul.
Shadows on the hills,
Sketch the trees and the daffodils,
Catch the breeze and the winter chills,
In colors on the snowy linen land.

Don McLean, Vincent

Illustration: Starry Night, Vincent Van Gogh

Green Eyes

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

William Blake, The Tyger

Winter in Bavaria

Chill airs and wintry winds! my ear
Has grown familiar with your song;
I hear it in the opening year,
I listen, and it cheers me long.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Woods in Winter