After writing the novel, I was amazed to learn that artists for the last several centuries have been fascinated with irises, and more specifically, the white iris. VanGogh’s painting, Irises includes a single white iris in a field of blue ones.
José Navarro’s interpretation of this painting sent chills up my spine, especially his take on the symbolism of the white iris. "He is different, he is the white iris," Navarro states of VanGogh, "so he is something separated from the others." It was equally exciting to find that one of Canada’s famous painters, Annie Prat (1861-1960), created a painting entitled "Nova Scotia’s Wild White Iris"
On the back inscription Prat writes:
"My most precious plate... This wild white iris: Iris family. Said by the late Dr. J.S. Mackay, Supt. of Education for Nova Scotia to be 'a priceless treasure!' It was discovered by the late Noel H. Wilcox (Archdeacon of Halifax, Nova Scotia), his mother, Mrs. C.S. Wilcox, and A.L. Prat; in Nova Scotia. It grew amid a lot of its blue cousins. Archdeacon Wilcox waded into the very swampy place, & secured a root, which he planted in a wild garden; where it rested; not blooming again until eleven years had passed. The plant has since bloomed yearly. - A.L.P." |
Bliss Carman, born in New Brunswick, (1861-1929) wrote a poem on the white iris:
WHITE IRIS
White Iris was a princess
In a kingdom long ago
Mysterious as moonlight
And silent as the snow.
She drew the world in wonder
And swayed it with desire,
Ere Babylon was builded
Or a stone laid in Tyre.
Yet here within my garden
Her loveliness appears,
Undimmed by any sorrow
Of all the tragic years.
How kind that earth should treasure
So beautiful a thing —
All mystical enchantment,
To stir our hearts in spring!
Courtesy the Canadian Poetry Archive
|
|
