The Poetic Dream of Thomas Hood
I first read Thomas Hood’s poem,
“A Lake and a Fairy Boat,” when I was a teenager with a head still full
of Lothlórien’s golden murmurings and the wild sails of The Dawn
Treader. The three stanzas were filled with absolutely everything I
loved—
Whimsy and gossamer, rubies and pearls—and wonder beyond
the realm of dragons, beyond the harsh reach of reality until the last
two lines. There, the poem breaks against the most forlorn of
realizations and the deepest of longings:
“But fairies have broke their wands,
And wishing has lost its power!”
This poem was published almost 200 years ago in Hood’s book,
The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies. And yet, even today, to read it aloud is to taste the echo of melancholy and imagination inked
fresh on the tip of the tongue, newly-gemmed as a drop of blood—
Or a castaway jewel of the mind.
This
poem makes me just a little braver every time I read it. Or in this
case, draw it. I’ve been messing around with Artweaver since June. I
have several big projects in mind, but just the sheer idea of what I
want to accomplish can feel overwhelming. Experimenting with digital art
in the format of a comic is great practice, and I hope to sketch out a new one every 4-6 weeks.
Illustrating this single comic took me over five
hours, but I don’t regret a second of it. Hood’s words remind me that
just because something is daunting doesn’t mean the venture isn’t worth
it!
A dear cousin recently shared this wisdom from our late princess, Carrie Fisher:
“Stay
afraid, but do it anyway. What’s important is the action. You don’t
have to wait to be confident. Just do it and eventually the confidence
will follow.”
May we all hop onto the fairy boat in our heart and follow the currents to the farthest shores of our wishes.
~*~
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