Some reflections on glass
The following marvellous article about the windows in Emily Dickinson's house has reminded me of my own fascination with the reflective, refractive and distorting qualities of glass:
https://sites.udel.edu/mcses2012/pape...
My own interest in the aesthetics of the imperfections in glass began when I lived in England, and took this big collection of photographs of windows in churches and other public buildings:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/2932096...
... Which also culminated in this poem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxEoP...
Of course, the other thing about windows is that they are framing devices; you can compose different pictures depending where you stand relative to a favourite window. A few minutes' thought about windows in literature will show how powerful a window is for an author as an observational device.
But I love most of all the insight in Xiao Situ's article that nineteenth century (and earlier glass) always contained something of the breath of the glassblower, just as a poem always contains something of a poet.
https://sites.udel.edu/mcses2012/pape...
My own interest in the aesthetics of the imperfections in glass began when I lived in England, and took this big collection of photographs of windows in churches and other public buildings:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/2932096...
... Which also culminated in this poem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxEoP...
Of course, the other thing about windows is that they are framing devices; you can compose different pictures depending where you stand relative to a favourite window. A few minutes' thought about windows in literature will show how powerful a window is for an author as an observational device.
But I love most of all the insight in Xiao Situ's article that nineteenth century (and earlier glass) always contained something of the breath of the glassblower, just as a poem always contains something of a poet.
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