2.11.2011

The Tangled Skein




Try we life-long, we can never
Straighten out life's tangled skein,
Why should we, in vain endeavour,
Guess and guess and guess again?
Life's a pudding full of plums
Care's a canker that benumbs.
Wherefore waste our elocution
On impossible solution?
Life's a pleasant institution,
Let us take it as it comes!

Set aside the dull enigma,
We shall guess it all too soon;
Failure brings no kind of stigma -
Dance we to another tune!
String the lyre and fill the cup,
Lest on sorrow we should sup;
Hop and skip to Fancy's fiddle,
Hands across and down the middle -
Life's perhaps the only riddle
That we shrink from giving up!

William Schwenck Gilbert

I recently created this crown for a client based on the poem The Tangled Skein by William Schwenck Gilbert. The crown is to be worn on special family occasions and celebrations. I had such a good time making a piece knowing that it would become a treasured family heirloom.

Thanks, Tom!