Old and New

OLD AND NEW

Nancy Herman

6" x 8"

oil on canvas board

Visiting a friend in downtown Philadelphia, I spotted these two buildings in the early evening sun, united by the sun but representing very different periods.

Looking for some words to describe the old and the new, I ran across this poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson, Memoriam.  It is living proof that humans don't really change and the old and the new are united by their desire for a better life, while struggling with the same problems.  Tennyson writing in the middle of the 19th century had these words to welcome the new year.  Here is one stanza.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,    

And ancient forms of party strife;    

Ring in the nobler modes of life, 

With sweeter manners, purer laws. 

In 2013 I would wish for exactly the same things.

Here is a link to the whole poem:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16131

$150.00