Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Keats in Rome and the "Protestant Cemetery"


Heard melodies are sweet,
but those unheard are sweeter.
~John Keats

Cimitero Acattolico
(Non-Catholic Cemetery)
founded 1734

Also called
Cimitero degli Inglesi
(Englishment's Cemetery)


On December 3rd, I looked at the weather channel app, on my iPhone, and it was going to be a perfectly clear day! Cold, but clear! The plan was to meet up with my new friend, Dawn. She's the American I'd met up with, and who had taken me to the amazing murals, at the monastery, at Trinità dei Monti.

We were supposed to meet at the Piramide Metro stop, in the morning. Turns out her husband's co-op does the landscape work at the famous Protestant Cemetery, in Rome, where poets Keats and Shelley are buried.


It was a crisp, gorgeous morning. Everything was lush and beautiful from the rain, and the lady who runs the place (an English woman) Amanda Thursfield, couldn't have been more lovely, explaining the cemetery and it's ... residents? 


 On the lovely stone, below...


Weeping may endure for a night,
but joy cometh in the morning.
~Psalm 30:5


It seems like a small, intimate, space but there are about 4,000 graves, at the cemetery, including many artists, diplomats from around the world, well known writers, architects, scientists, composers, and the Bulgari family. Although, it was originally created as a place to bury foreign Protestants and people of Eastern Orthodox faiths, it was broadened to include other faiths, from Buddhism to Islam.



Grave, below, of Clara Woolson Benedict, her sister Constance Fenimore Woolson and her Daughter Clare Rathbone Benedict.

Constance, was an american writer, of poetry, fiction and travel narratives, died in Venice, in 1894. Her sister, Clara Benedict, wrote in a letter in 1908 ...


"... I wish I could describe to you the beauty of my sister's grave - the whole top, one purple mass of sweet violets, and the runic cross lying flat on this lovely bed of violets! The cemetery is the only joyous cemetery I know of - there, the flowers always bloom; the birds always sing ...When I think of our cold snowy cemeteries at home, I wish that all I loved rested just there - where Connie sleeps .. " - Clara Woolson Benedict (1844-1923)


On the edge of the cemetery, you can see why the metro stop is called Piramide.


Pyramid of Cestius
Piramide di Caio Cestio 
Built 18 BC-12 BC


Here is Dawn, with one of the many feline residents of the place!




As you can see, they were doing excavations, next to the pyramid. Excavations are going on continually, in Rome. After all, Rome is a big layer cake of different centuries and millennia of building.



The pyramid, was built as a tomb for Gaius Cestius, a Roman Magistrate and member of the Septemviri Epulonum. (Religious corporation) Apparently, there is a burial chamber inside. It was rediscovered in 1660. You have to get permission to enter, and unless you are a scholar, it's unlikely to happen.

You are always new, 
the last of your kisses was ever the sweetest.
~John Keats



Here lies John Keats, in the photos, above and below. He died, in Rome, of tuberculosis in 1821, at the age of 25. Below, he is buried next to his friend, artist, Joseph Severn. The small grave between the two men, is that if Severn's infant son, Henry.



I have been astonished
that men could die martyrs for religion -
I have shuddered at it.
I shudder no more-
I could martyred for my religion-
Love is my religion-
I could die for that.
~John Keats


Three little kitties ...





Below, left, the tomb of Rosa Bathurst, by Richard Westmacott, Jr. (1825)



Angel of Grief
by American Sculptor W.W. Story 
for the grave of his wife, Emelyn
Story, was laid to rest here, with his wife 18 moths later.


This beautiful grave has been copied dozens of times, mostly in American cemeteries, and even put on album covers. The lady, in charge, said that teenagers come to pose with it, and they have to keep them from climbing on it.


The grave of Percy B. Shelley, with the words from Shakespeare ...

Nothing of him that doth fade.
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange
~The Tempest, by William Shakespeare


Shelley, died in 1822, drowning while sailing off the Italian Riviera. He was found with a copy of Keats poetry in his pocket. 

Here is a portion of Anonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats written by Shelley


Go thou to Rome -- at once the Paradise,
The Grave, the city, and the wilderness;
And where its wrecks like shatter'd mountains rise,
And flowering weeds, and fragrant copses dress
The bones of Desolation's nakedness
Pass, till the spirit of the spot shall lead
They footsteps to a slope of green access
Where, like an infant's smile, over the dead
A light of laughing flowers along the grass is spread;

And gray walls moulder round, on which dull Time
Feeds, like slow fire upon a hoary brand;
And one keen pyramid with wedge sublime,
Pavilioning the dust of him who plann'd
This refuge for his memory, doth stand
Like flame transform'd to marble; and beneath
A field is spread, on which a newer band
Have pitch'd in Heaven's smile their camp of death,
Welcoming him we lose with scarce extinguish'd breath.

... The One remains, the many change and pass;
Heaven's light forever shines, Earth's shadows fly;
Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass,
Stains the white radiance of Eternity,
Until Death tramples it to fragments. -Die,
If thou wouldst be with that which thou dost seek!
Follow where all is fled! - Rome's azure sky,
Flowers, ruins, statues, music, words, are weak
The glory they transfuse with fitting truth to speak.
~Percy Bysshe Shelley


The graves of the Bulgari family, with red flowers brought in, from the family.



One of the newer graves, Nicole Bulgari, 1939-2011 




Sculpture, below, by Ivar Jonsson. 
It sits atop the grave of Lars Leksell (1907-1986,) who was reunited, in burial, with his wife Ludmila.



The large grave, in the center, in the following photo, is that of Russian painter Karl Pavlovich Brullov (1799-1852.) He was the first Russian painter to become well known in the west.




Below, the grave and family tomb of Thomas Jefferson Page (1808-1899,) American explorer and commander of U.S. Navy expeditions that mapped Argentina and Paraguay. The grave was created by Italian sculptor Ettore Ximenes.







Several years before his death, Shelley wrote of this cemetery ...

It might make one in love with death,
to think that one should be buried in so sweet a place.
~Percy B. Shelley


After a few busy days in Rome, going around the city, it was nice to be around all the trees and on such a beautiful day! It was the perfect day to visit.

Here is the video, from the cemetery's website. It has lot of history, and great views of not only the cemetery, but the Keats Shelley House on Piazza di Spagna, as well.


Address
Via Caio Cestio, 6
00153 Roma

Hours
Monday-Saturday 9:00 am to 5:00 pm 
Sundays and public holidays 9:00 am - 1:00 pm

In 2006, The Non-Catholic Cemetery, was nominated, by the World Monument Fund, to its list of the world's 100 most endangered sites. Click here, for the link to Friends of the Cemetery, for more information.

Please click on the following links for more information


Back in 2009, I went to a screening of the film, Bright Star, and heard its lovely director, Jane Campion, speak. I thought of this film, about Keats, as I wandered through this cemetery. If you haven't seen it, it's very romantic and visually ... so beautiful!



A thing of beauty is a joy forever: 
its loveliness increases; 
it will never pass into nothingness.
~ John Keats

10 comments:

Di Mackey said...

I saw your photographs and thought, I think she really loved this place. Maybe I'm wrong but your photographs really sing ...
I've made a note about the Keats movie. Thank you. I had completely missed it and had studied him to bits and pieces at school and university.

donna baker said...

Love Keats and Bright Star. The Roman cemetary looks different than ones I've visited in England and France. All beautiful.

Unknown said...

Absolutely wonderful shots. The top one is outstanding! Love it.

rjerdee said...

Oh, what a lovely day you had!!! I'm stunned by the beautiful photographs and can see why this is such a great place to spend time. I'm going to order Bright Star...love Jane Campion...remember The Piano?

Cristina Deboni said...

I cimiteri hanno il loro fascino, soprattutto se un pò abbandonati come in alcune foto di quello di Roma....un interessante reportage! complimenti, ciao Cri

KathyA said...

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful place and photos!

One of my fond memories of Rome is walking around and coming unexpectedly upon excavation. I find this exciting.

Funny, having gone to Catholic schools -- ever there there was a definitive distinction between all things Catholic and (shudder) Protestant!

And just like me, you notice the kitties!!! :)

Kerry O'Gorman said...

What a lush and lovely place to wander! I especially love the fallen angel. How tradgically beautiful1 Thanks for the trip.
By the way, Re: my Song for Friday...I am SO with you there as a groovy back up singer!!!

Tony said...

Fascinante cementerio, muy fotogénico...Felicidades

Amanda Summer said...

What stunning images. Cemeteries are often gorgeous places from an architectural and historic perspective, and this one is no exception.

jane said...

these are some seriously cool shots. and i love the stories that went with them. i always leave here in search of more info. thanks for always sparking my interest.
big warm hugs lucinda. :)