Poetry, George Elliot,

Todays poem is;
 Count that day Lost by George Elliot.

The Author
George Elliot was in fact Mary Ann Evans, born in 1819 at South Farm on the Arbury Estate, near Coventry, England.
She had an elder sister Chrissey and it's become a bit of a folk legend that Chrissey was the ‘pretty one’ and Mary was the ‘clever one’, the relevance or truth of this is not known. She also had an older brother Isaac who she was very close too.  The lived in the Coventry area of England and all enjoyed a relatively good education and comfortable middle class upbringing. In Coventry Mary Ann made friends with Charles and Cara Bray, owners of a local newspaper and friends of many of the contemporary ‘up and coming’ figures of the literary world. She apparently became part of this bohemian literary circle, lost her faith, stopped going to church and eventually moved away from Coventry and settled in London. Here she met even more eccentric people and gained quite a name for herself as an intellectual.  After her father died she needed an income and considered a career in writing. By this time she had started calling herself Marian Edwards, had a scandalous affair with a married man and managed to meet just about every famous author, thinker and philosopher of the time. These acquaintances included Dickens, Thackery, Robert Browning, and Philosopher Herbert Spencer. Those who thought she couldn’t do any thing more shocking in Victorian England were mistaken, she set up home with a married man, George Lewes, and began to call herself Mrs Lewes. Needless to say society was scandalized. This led to her being completely cut off from her family, her brother whom she had idolized as a child refused to speak to her. At this point she began writing seriously, she wrote novels and poetry and became a hugely successful, best selling  author.  No longer wishing to advertise her unconventional relationship with Lewes she chose a pen name – George Eliot. All of her books, with the exception of ‘Romola’, were published by William Blackwood and Sons in Edinburgh. She and Lewes lived happily as man and mistress for over 25 years.

To my mind the most remarkable thing this woman did was to translate, from the original, Spinoza’s ‘’Tractatus theologico-politicus’’, and ‘’The Ethics’’. Wow………….that is some achievement, have you read Spinoza??? , to read this in the original and then translate proves the reputation as an intellectual was very well deserved.

Todays Artwork is by Joseph Noel Paton.
The Artist
Sir Joseph Noel Paton, Scottish Artist, 13 December 1821 – 26 December 1901, born in Wooer's Alley, Dunfermline, Fife.

He was born to a family of weavers who worked with damask, he continued in the family business for a while before leaving Scotland to study at the Royal Academy, London in 1843. He is one of the few Scottish painter s to adopt the Pre-Raphaelite style which was more popular in England. He soon established a reputation as quite an exceptional painter of historical, fairy, allegorical and religious subjects. It didn’t take him long to start picking up awards for his work. his first picture to be shown to the public was 'Ruth Gleaning' which was shown at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1844. He won a number of prizes for his work including for two of his most famous works The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania (1846 - exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy) and The Reconciliation of Oberon and Titania (1847 - Westminster Hall). In 1865, he was appointed Queen's Limner for Scotland.
As well as being a talented artist this man also published two volumes of poetry and produced a number of sculptures, he was a truly multi talented individual.  He also gained a knighthood and was a famous collector of antique arms and armory. He died in Edinburgh on the 26th of December 1901.



The Poem
Count That Day Lost
    
      If you sit down at set of sun
And count the acts that you have done,
And, counting, find
One self-denying deed, one word
That eased the heart of him who heard,
One glance most kind
That fell like sunshine where it went --
Then you may count that day well spent.
But if, through all the livelong day,
You've cheered no heart, by yea or nay --
If, through it all
You've nothing done that you can trace
That brought the sunshine to one face--
No act most small
That helped some soul and nothing cost --
Then count that day as worse than lost.

delete reply tinallee57 wrote on Nov 28, '08 very interesting read - had never before known the details behind her choice of a masculine pen name. Thank-you.

delete reply brendainmad wrote on Nov 26, '08 I've never read any of her poems until now only 'Silas Marner' a long time ago. Not surprising that she shocked people by living with a married man. She used a masculine pen name for her writings. I would love to read that her brother read them and loved them, not knowing that his wicked sister had written them. This is a lovely poem you've shared.

delete reply djdx wrote on Nov 26, '08 An inspiring poem.

delete reply starfishred wrote on Nov 25, '08 wonderful blog loretta

delete reply jadedruid wrote on Nov 25, '08 I wish everyone could read this and follow the advise. The world would be a better place.

delete reply asolotraveler wrote on Nov 25, '08 good advice for us one and all