Weekly Photo Challenge: Close

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Henri II and Catherine de Médicis

The Weekly Photo Challenge is:

Close. It’s a feeling, it’s a proximity…it’s people, it’s a place, it’s objects. They’re close. 

Share a picture that means CLOSE to you!

Visiting recently the Basilica of Saint Denis, near Paris, I was struck by the beauty of couples represented over the tombs they were buried in. They are close to each other, and lots of them have even dogs represented at their feet, as symbol of their faithfulness and closeness in life.

Close, forever…

Wow, Christine, from The Book Trunk commented and gave reference to An Arundel Tomb, a poem by Philip Larkin:

Side by side, their faces blurred,
The earl and countess lie in stone,
Their proper habits vaguely shown
As jointed armour, stiffened pleat,
And that faint hint of the absurd—
The little dogs under their feet.
(…)
Such faithfulness in effigy
Was just a detail friends would see
(…)
Rigidly they

Persisted, linked, through lengths and breadths

Of time.

(…)
The stone fidelity

They hardly meant has come to be
Their final blazon, and to prove
Our almost-instinct almost true:
What will survive of us is love.
You can read and listen to the whole poem here. Thanks again Christine!

AND WHAT IS YOUR IDEA OF CLOSENESS?

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64 thoughts on “Weekly Photo Challenge: Close”

  2. Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge CLOSE | Project 365 Challenge in 2012

    • Thanks. Yes I thought it was nicer than just having a horizontal shot. Wow, I love your blog theme. I had been looking for a double sidebar, and never found anything too exciting. I may actually give it a shot with Coralline

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  15. That is beautiful Have you ever read Philip Larkin’s An Arundel Tomb? Here’s the first stanza:

    Side by side, their faces blurred,
    The earl and countess lie in stone,
    Their proper habits vaguely shown
    As jointed armour, stiffened pleat,
    And that faint hint of the absurd—
    The little dogs under their feet.

    My Saturday Snapshot is a Warrior Queen – a feisty Saxon ruler who beat the Vikings http://goo.gl/vTUc8

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    Reply ↓

    • wow, thanks so much for the reference. I have found it online, even read, so I will add it to my post – with reference to your blog.
      Your grandmother sounds very inspiring with what she did. And courage, warrior queen as you see your girl taking flight to other horizons

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      Reply ↓

    • Now that’s funny, you kind of mixed together the content of 2 posts. I had indeed a post on Père Lachaise cemetery, where Jim Morrison is buried, and yes people still visit him a lot, but this post says that the tomb is in the Basilica of Saint-Denis. Other time other style!

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      Reply ↓

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