Since my return from Washington I have been

looking at photos of some of the great paintings

we saw, I was wondering if I should post some

details of the beautiful landscapes we saw at the

National Museum of American Art.

I had just begun to reread a wonderful book, 

Edwward Hirsch's How to Read a Poem and

Fall in love with Poetry, when I opened it and

saw this quote from Emerson's journals. I knew

I wanted to use the paintings and the quote

together. I did not record all the artist and titles

of the painting we saw. The last by Moran was

one of my favorites

Below a detail from

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Thomas Moran

"I dreamed that I floated at will in the great Ether,

and I saw this world floating also not far off, but

diminished to the size of an apple. Then an angel

took it in his hand & brought it to me and said

'This must thou eat.' And I ate the world"

                      Ralph Waldo Emerson