An Absolute Monarch (for a day)

 

If I were an absolute monarch for a day, I would organise all my subjects into small groups and send them into the countryside to seek solitude. It will be an inspirational journey for "you shall see the world in a grain of sand, and heaven in a wild flower" (William Blake).

They are welcomed to take a book of poetry, preferably from the Romantic period (Wordsworth, Blake, Byron, Shelley, Coleridge, Keats or a pocket size edition of Palgrave's Golden Treasury). During my short reign, all the mobile phones, modern electronic gadgets (with the reception of a gramophone record player) and the industries of mass consumer culture will be banned temporarily. The reception for Wi-fi, all the popular television programmes and sporting events will be suspended.

Appreciation of Solitude and Nature. This is my secret beach. Most of the time it's very quiet. I've always loved to come here for a long walk on the beach. The cold wind can knock you silly and by the time you have come to, most of your problems are forgotten.

I'd send all my subjects on a trip to seek solitude..."If thou canst get but thither, there grows the flower of peace, the rose that cannot wither, thy fortress and thy ease." from 'Peace' by Henry Vaughan.

I shall leave my people to choose whether they prefer to be looking at the world from the height on the Alps, down by a lake at their feet, or beside the soft sands of the beach, or under Picardy poplars, or among Tuscan or Umbrian walnuts and vines or even in their own back garden. I shall ask them to compose a poem about what they see, how they feel or describe the scent of a rose, the echoes of ancient times from the hills or the sound of the birds as they observe in solitude.

This is a complete ten volumes edition of Walter Savage Landor (1775 – 1864) which includes his famous "Imaginary Conversations" as well as his poems and prose. A Christmas present from Gordon.

"Second–hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack. Besides, in this random miscellaneous company we may rub against some complete stranger who will, with luck, turn into the best friend we have in the world." Virginia Woolf, Street Haunting: A London Adventure, 1930.

Hardbound book with half leather binding (spine and corners) and beautiful marbled boards inside.

Appreciation of Literature: Walter Savage Landor's Imaginary Conversations is one of the finest and the most elevated canon of great English literary texts. Literature is what connects us: they teach us how to live and to dream and what it is like to be transported, winged in imagination, gratified in humour and stirred in pity, rage, love, rapture, zeal for learning and curiosity for life.  

 

By lunchtime my people would be hungry for human interaction and conversation. I shall ensure that all my equerries to keep their watchful eyes on my people so that they do not use modern slang or common, pedestrian language. I will teach my people to respect the language and the art of conversations by reading Imaginary Conversations by Walter Savage Landor (1775 –1864). Landor’s unequalled sense of irony, pathos and style in writing of the highest imaginative value in his Conversations will be my set text and bible for the day. Literature is what connects us: they teach us how to live and to dream and what it is like to be transported, winged in imagination, gratified in humour and stirred in pity, rage, love, rapture, zeal for learning and curiosity for life.

Appreciation of Art: Vasily Kandinsky (right) with A. Seddeler (left) and Dimitry Kardovsky (centre) in the Azbe-Schule, Munich, c. 1897. Kandinsky's book On the Spiritual in Art is one of my favourite writings on art. He wrote: “The artist must train not only his eye but also his soul so that it can weigh colours in its own scale and thus become a determinant in artistic creation.” “Every work of art is the child of its age and, in many cases, the mother of our emotions.”  “The more abstract is form, the more clear and direct is its appeal. The more an artist uses these abstracted forms, the deeper and more confidently will he advance into the kingdom of the abstract. And after him will follow the gazer at his pictures, who also will have gradually acquired a greater familiarity with the language of that kingdom.”
 

Later on, I shall ask every man and woman to be their own artists. They shall paint or draw whatever they wish as long as their vision corresponds to their feeling, imagination and intelligence. Abstract art is not to be frown upon but it will be a part of intellectual and emotional exercise to enlarge a man’s knowledge of his own soul and help him to gain a deeper insight into the heart and meaning of the whole world. The artist, Kandinsky will be our ultimate hero and god for the day. His beautiful, abstract compositions will be the gift of a transfiguring vision to my people. We shall reject everything that is formulaic. We shall embrace colours, light and shade, eccentricity, ambiguities, oddities and obscurities. Remember what the writer, Alan Bennett once said about art: "Old ladies are unfazed by the avant-garde, just as children are. Outrage is for middle age." 

Appreciation of Music: The legendary Heinrich Schlusnus, who died in 1952, was a master of simplicity when it comes to interpreting art songs. His voice happened to be among the most beautiful and expressive of the century. His rendition of Strauss' Morgen is my all time favourite.

 

In the evening, before all my subjects are back to the reality of increasingly disillusioned age and my reign would be nearly over, I shall ask all the lights to be extinguished in this universe so that my people would see the stars and the silver moon in the sky. They shall meditate on the light shining on bejewelled grass and trees of our Paradise. They shall look at the world one last time with an unexhausted freshness.

When the time to say farewell has come, we shall listen, in infinite silent contentment, to the legendary voice of Heinrich Schlusnus (1888-1952) singing Richard Strauss’ famous song, Morgen meaning “Tomorrow”.

Tomorrow
 ["Morgen" op 27 No 4 by Richard Strauss]

And tomorrow the sun will shine again,
and on the path I will take,
it will unite us again, we happy ones,
upon this sun-breathing earth...

 
And to the shore, the wide shore with blue waves,
we will descend quietly and slowly;

we will look mutely into each other's eyes
and the silence of happiness will settle upon us.

 

 

Now, what would you do if you were an absolute monarch for a day?