CULTURAL EXPLORATION

From one object to an entire cultural map

Begin with a work, person, period, place, tradition or theme. Every card leads to public content and relationships that have passed the same publication gate.

All objects

All objects

1233 public objects
Proverb

Though he be clad in silk and scarlet.

A main proverb preserved in Walter K. Kelly's British-centered 1859 comparative collection. The exact oral origin is not asserted, and the historical saying is not presented as present-day fact or advice.

Proverb

Threatened folk live long.

A main proverb preserved in Walter K. Kelly's British-centered 1859 comparative collection. The exact oral origin is not asserted, and the historical saying is not presented as present-day fact or advice.

Proverb

Three may keep counsel if two be away.

A main proverb preserved in Walter K. Kelly's British-centered 1859 comparative collection. The exact oral origin is not asserted, and the historical saying is not presented as present-day fact or advice.

Proverb

Throw in a sprat to catch a salmon.

A main proverb preserved in Walter K. Kelly's British-centered 1859 comparative collection. The exact oral origin is not asserted, and the historical saying is not presented as present-day fact or advice.

Proverb

Throw much dirt, and some will stick.

A main proverb preserved in Walter K. Kelly's British-centered 1859 comparative collection. The exact oral origin is not asserted, and the historical saying is not presented as present-day fact or advice.

Proverb

Time and tide wait for no man.

A main proverb preserved in Walter K. Kelly's British-centered 1859 comparative collection. The exact oral origin is not asserted, and the historical saying is not presented as present-day fact or advice.

Poetry

To Althea, from Prison

Prison bars cannot confine love, fellowship, song, or a quiet conscience; the poem also binds inward freedom to declared loyalty to the king.

Poetry

To Autumn

Autumn appears through ripening, harvest, and approaching dusk, heard on its own terms rather than measured against spring.

Poetry

To Blossoms

Addressing blossoms falling too fast from a fruit tree, the speaker asks why they were made for an hour's delight and then reads in them how quickly showy things pass into the grave.

Proverb

To build castles in the air.

A main proverb preserved in Walter K. Kelly's British-centered 1859 comparative collection. The exact oral origin is not asserted, and the historical saying is not presented as present-day fact or advice.

Proverb

To carry two faces under one hood.

A main proverb preserved in Walter K. Kelly's British-centered 1859 comparative collection. The exact oral origin is not asserted, and the historical saying is not presented as present-day fact or advice.

Poetry

To Celia

Love becomes a toast made with the eyes, while a returned rose wreath is imagined to carry the beloved’s breath rather than its own scent.

Poetry

To Cyriack Skinner

Addressing the grandson of a judge learned in the law, the speaker proposes to drown deep thoughts in a day of harmless mirth, setting aside Euclid, Archimedes and foreign politics, since knowing how to measure life means not refusing a cheerful hour when it is sent.

Poetry

To Daffodils

The speaker asks the daffodils to stay until evensong so the two can go together, then turns the address around to say that human lives run out as quickly as the flowers, the summer rain and the morning dew.

Poetry

To Electra

The speaker refuses to ask even for a kiss or a smile, and settles instead for kissing the air that has just touched the beloved.