mabey praises durer, shakespeare and clare

In today’s Guardian, the poet Andrew Motion reviews Richard Mabey’s new book Weeds. In Mabey’s book, Motion writes, the heroes are those who see beauty in the ignored and overlooked:

Dürer's Large Piece of Turf (1503), for instance, because it gives beetling attention to plantains, dandelions, burnet-saxifrage; Shakespeare for his celebration of everyday plants in A Midsummer Night's Dream; and John Clare for the care he lavishes on everything at ground level, including the

"simple small forget-me-not
Eyed wi a pin's head yellow dot
I' the middle of its tender blue".

See our 'flowers on stage' series: flowers on stage: the poppy, flowers on stage: the daffodil, flowers on stage: the lotus, flowers on stage: the lungwort; flowers on stage: ‘breath of life’, flowers on stage: kudzu and flowers on stage: snake's head fritillaries Follow-up comment: flowers and the curve of the eye See also: Mabey says "I'm a great believer in play"

pic: Dürer's Large Piece of Turf