Museum Piece
The good gray guardians of art
Patrol the halls on spongy shoes,
Impartially protective, though
Perhaps suspicious of Toulouse.
Here dozes one against the wall,
Disposed upon a funeral chair.
A Degas dancer pirouettes
Upon the parting of his hair.
See how she spins! The grace is there,
But strain as well is plain to see.
Degas loved the two together:
Beauty joined to energy.
Edgar Degas purchased once
A fine El Greco, which he kept
Against the wall beside his bed
To hang his pants on while he slept.
poem by Richard Wilbur
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Related quotes
Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.
quote by Edgar Degas
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.
quote by Edgar Degas
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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I should like to be famous and unknown.
quote by Edgar Degas
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Painting is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do.
quote by Edgar Degas
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Everyone has talent at twenty-five. The difficulty is to have it at fifty.
quote by Edgar Degas
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Art is vice. You don't marry it legitimately, you rape it.
quote by Edgar Degas
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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In painting you must give the idea of the true by means of the false.
quote by Edgar Degas
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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No art is less spontaneous than mine. What I do is the result of reflection and the study of the great masters.
quote by Edgar Degas
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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You must aim high, not in what you are going to do at some future date, but in what you are going to make yourself do to-day. Otherwise, working is just a waste of time.
quote by Edgar Degas
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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What a delightful thing is the conversation of specialists! One understands absolutely nothing and it's charming.
quote by Edgar Degas
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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One must do the same subject over again ten times, a hundred times. In art nothing must resemble an accident, not even movement.
quote by Edgar Degas
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Max Is Fixed.
I don’t know what that son
of a bitch said but it’s all lies
said Max I never touched his
lady I wouldn’t have touched
her with a proverbial barge pole
but he’s always had it in for me
that schmuck he thinks just because
he’s got himself a good job and
lives in a big house and drives a
posh car that I’m just slum waste
but I showed him when I knocked
on his door when he was at work
and his lady let me in to fix the
waste pipe and once I got it fixed
she put her arms about my waist
and pulled me onto the sofa and
began kissing me like some cat on
heat and I remembered seeing the
Degas painting on the wall one of
those ballet paintings and as she
unzipped my pants and entered in
I could hear Ella Fitzgerald singing
on the hifi her voice reaching inside
of me and up to the big blue sky.
poem by Terry Collett
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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It is all very well to copy what one sees, but it is far better to draw what one now only sees in one's memory. That is a transformation in which imagination collaborates with memory.
quote by Edgar Degas
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Ballet Rosette
(dedicated to Ms. Alina Cojocaru, a great Romanian ballerina)
flowing
precise
graceful
ethereal
pointe work
the movements
choreographed
turn-in of the legs
Cecchetti
Vaganova
BalanchineBournonville
setting
narrative
theatrical
flexed hands
Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty
Nureyev, and Baryshnikov
non-classical costumes
off-centered positions
mime
dance
acting
music
( inspired by Edgar Degas' Ballet Rehearsal)
poem by Ahmad Shiddiqi
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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It seems to me that today if the artist wishes to be serious — to cut out a little original niche for himself, or at least preserve his own innocence of personality — he must once more sink himself in solitude. There are too much talk and gossip; pictures are apparently made, like stock-market prices, by competition of people eager for profit; in order to do anything at all we need (so to speak) the wit and ideas of our neighbors as much as the businessmen need the funds of others to win on the market. All this traffic sharpens our intelligence and falsifies our judgment.
quote by Edgar Degas
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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An Old Man
An old man is drinking
In the cool night
Beneath intricately scattered stars.
He thinks about his wife
Still more beautiful
Than autumn leaves.
This is a lovelier moment
Than seeing for the first time
A Degas painting of ballet dancers.
poem by Uriah Hamilton
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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This Picasso Imaginable Thing...
two faces of a woman 7: 32 AM
ah 7: 32 AM
picasso 7: 32 AM
mooo 7: 32 AM
ah 7: 33 AM
is that what it is 7: 33 AM
pain and happiness? 7: 33 AM
wa ko kabalo ana 7: 33 AM
picasso has a painting of a woman with two faces 7: 33 AM
i hav seen picasso's work 7: 33 AM
havent you seen it? 7: 33 AM
never realized that 7: 33 AM
yes cubism 7: 33 AM
he explained that to me while we were in barcelona spain 7: 34 AM
(har har har) 7: 34 AM
hahahha 7: 34 AM
good one 7: 34 AM
poor bald picasso 7: 34 AM
travel jud ang mind 7: 34 AM
still having lots of erections despite his ugly legs 7: 34 AM
mao ba? 7: 35 AM
hoe did u know that/ 7: 35 AM
how 7: 35 AM
the indefatigable picasso 7: 35 AM
wow 7: 35 AM
we were in the brothels of paris with alexander pope 7: 35 AM
hahaah 7: 35 AM
mahilig jud ang artist no 7: 35 AM
honestly, i have the book 7: 35 AM
good 7: 36 AM
the writers in europe sometimes find themselved in reunion and communion with whores and drink red whores beer together 7: 36 AM
yes! Edgar Degas too 7: 37 AM
my fav
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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I Feel You
She decorates the night with lanterns of Degas
Swarthy reds opaque like Goddess fire
Flemish corridors of velvet puzzles
Rising with flames in stolen desire
Every memory serves the night
Fury like phantom moonlit horses
Ride the crest
Ride the tides of true rivers
You are the distant wind
You think you have forgotten me
The Doors are on
I know better
I feel you
poem by Joseph Narusiewicz
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Wall That I See
always this wall
this wall, always, this,
wall, always
i see, and face, and
grasp, and feel
with my palms, and touch
with my fingers
never love it
but i am in here surrounded
always, by this, wall,
this, wall, this wall,
always, i dream of
overcoming this, wall
this height,
i dream of ladders,
and tall feet, and i always,
look beyond this,
this wall, this.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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When Time Stood Still
Far beyond the things you see
Time rolls on eternally
Got a thing about it
Just cant live without it
Sitting there inside your mind
Just waiting for the clock to chime
On a lonely line
Stood a lonely man
No pictures on an empty wall
No body there no one at all
Just echoes in the ivory halls
When time stood still
Days line up outside the door
Thought time had stopped there was no more
Been a lonely world
Such a lonely world
No pictures on an empty wall
No toulouse, vincent, or pablo
Just echoes in the ivory halls
When time stood still
No big machine or april showers
No submarines no plastic flowers
Just echoes in the ivory towers
When time stood still
When time stood still
When time stood still
When time stood still
song performed by by Electric Light Orchestra
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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