first flowers









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Now is the globe shrunk tight
Round the mouse’s dulled wintering heart.
Weasel and crow, as if moulded in brass,
Move through an outer darkness
Not in their right minds,
With the other deaths. She, too, pursues her ends,
Brutal as the stars of this month,
Her pale head heavy as metal.

Ted Hughes, "Snowdrop."

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From top:
Galanthus Nivalis postcard, ca. 1915-1930.
Maja Fjaested (Swedish, 1873-1961), Snowdrops.
Snowdrop cigarette card, from the George Arents Collection in the NYPL.
Theodorus van Hoytema (Dutch, 1863–1917): Mice and Snowdrops, 1911 Calendar: February.