Ruins of Despair
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ruinsofdespair.bsky.social
Ruins of Despair
@ruinsofdespair.bsky.social
180 followers 210 following 130 posts
A weary pilgrim on the grave of the Romantic Hero, a forlorn eulogist cast upon the desolate shore of the exquisite agony that is The Gothic.

#books #gothic #romanticism

'Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!' (P.B. Shelley)
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ruinsofdespair.bsky.social
Ruins of Despair @ruinsofdespair.bsky.social · Oct 4
I only go out to get me a fresh appetite for being alone.

– Lord Byron
ruinsofdespair.bsky.social
'The Grave' by Robert Blair 1788

#poetry #gothic #romanticism #books #booksky
From a yellowed page of an old book: 'Tis but a night, a long and moonless night, We make the grave our bed, and then are gone. Thus, at the shut of ev'n, the weary bird Leaves the wide air, and in some lonely brake Cow'rs down, and dozes till the dawn of day, Then claps his well-fledg'd wings, and bears away. FINIS.
November 27, 2025 at 2:35 PM
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theghostmonk.bsky.social
"She fell forward, and even as she fell a hand, far colder than the snow, caught her neck. She lay struggling in the snow and as she struggled there two hands of an icy fleshless chill closed about her throat. Then she lay still."
- Hugh Walpole, 'The Snow'
#BookologyThursday #booksky #ghoststory
November 27, 2025 at 12:15 PM
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ninaantonia13.bsky.social
Someone with a Gothic sensibility must have decided that this image of a fortified sanitorium in the middle of a Norwegian forest (1906) was postcard worthy.
November 26, 2025 at 9:46 PM
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thehistorymouse.bsky.social
The monks dormitory #CleeveAbbey #Somerset

Pointed single light and window seat. Evidence of horizontal window bars remains #WindowsOnWednesday #DormitoryCleeveAbbey
November 26, 2025 at 6:19 PM
ruinsofdespair.bsky.social
'View of a Church Yard Entrance in Winter', Edmunc Koken c. 1862.

#gothic #romanticism #art #painting
Oil on canvas. A winter scene depicting a stone chapel or mausoleum with an arched wooden door, partially covered in snow. There are tall, bare trees, and a large building with spired rooftops looms softly in the foggy background. Snow blankets the ground.
November 26, 2025 at 4:58 PM
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cwreeve.bsky.social
For decades, until 2010, someone appeared at Edgar Allan Poe's grave in Baltimore before dawn on Jan. 19, his birthday.

The mysterious visitor (aka The Poe Toaster), who was never identified, would leave behind three roses & a half-filled bottle of cognac as a tribute to the writer

#WyrdWednesday
A blurry, black and white photo of a man in a hat kneeling at a headstone.
November 26, 2025 at 4:00 PM
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bikingmetalpunk.bsky.social
'Farbe: Schwarz-Weiss' #FotoVorschlag Keine sw-Bilder!
(Ist wirklich ein Farbbild, siehe alt-text)
#photography #nature #trees #scape #art #fotografie #natur
A small pond with an island on which a sand-colored pavilion is hidden by trees. The water is frozen and the trees are reflected on the surface. In front of the island stands a wire figure, which is supposed to represent a ballerina. The dark trees are covered with snow and the sky is light gray, so that this color photograph looks like a black-and-white image.
November 26, 2025 at 8:31 AM
ruinsofdespair.bsky.social
Recycled for this weeks birdy #LegendaryWednesday
ruinsofdespair.bsky.social Ruins of Despair @ruinsofdespair.bsky.social · 8d
In Finnish mythology the sacred white Swan of Tuoni swims in the black river of the underworld.

#WyrdWednesday #folklore #epic #Kalevala
In this cropped detail of a painting by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1897, the Swan observes from a safe distance the grieving mother and the dead body of her son, Lemminkäinen, on the shore of the river of Tuoni.
November 26, 2025 at 9:29 AM
ruinsofdespair.bsky.social
In Goethe's version of the Faustian pact, the sacriface ought to give you pause:

If you ever come across a moment in life so beautiful that you wish it never to end, the devil will claim your life and soul.

#WyrdWednesday #romanticism #books #booksky
It is, in practice, Marguerite who ends up paying the price of her life for indiscretions of Faust, but her soul is spared. Image: Faust and Mephisto in prison, colored lithograph by Joseph Fay 1846
November 26, 2025 at 8:14 AM
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sanctorium.bsky.social
good night moon and you
November 25, 2025 at 4:54 PM
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21rosa.bsky.social
#ThickTrunkTuesday a November night on the outskirts of Kendal #Cumbria
Mature, multi branched, ivy covered tree with a rather elegant, sinuous trunk
November 25, 2025 at 9:33 AM
ruinsofdespair.bsky.social
'It is actually possible to become amateurs in suffering.'

– Charles Robert Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer 1820

#goals

#gothic #books #booksky
Jean-Baptiste Oudry, 'The Cat and the Monkey' 1739. A painting of a black cat and a monkey infront of a fireplace, in what seems to be a classical villa. The monkey is prodding the cat to pull hot coals out of the fire.
November 25, 2025 at 11:21 AM
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okuboheavy.bsky.social
New pinhole Solargraph! This one was in place for a week. Had a few really sunny days and then lots of cloud. Am I going to do a month long and year long one? You’d better believe it! 🔭 ☀️
Week long Solargraph image showing the path of the sun behind some trees and snow in the foreground.
November 25, 2025 at 10:18 AM
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anniebrassey.bsky.social
Sunbeam #Pacific #Ocean 25.11.1876. "Whilst I was standing on deck at night a flying-fish flew against my throat & hung there, caught in the lace of my dress. He is a pretty specimen, but only his wings are to be preserved, for Muriel will have his body for breakfast tomorrow." #Brassey #1870s #Fish
Page and map from "A Voyage in the Sunbeam" by Annie Lady Brassey, published in 1878. South Pacific Ocean 25.11.1876. Scrapbook page with flying-fish wings mentioned in the text.
November 25, 2025 at 9:03 AM
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trahias.bsky.social
Jakub Schikaneder (Czech, 1855–1924)
"Street in the Evening, Prague", 1875.
Oil on Canvas Painting.
Private Collection.

#art #painting #painters #BlueSkyArt
November 25, 2025 at 8:56 AM
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andy-paciorek.bsky.social
Rena Mandel in 'Vampyr' (1932)
November 24, 2025 at 6:55 PM
ruinsofdespair.bsky.social
Prozession im Nebel (Procession in the Fog) by Ernst Ferdinand Oehme 1828

#MistyMonday #art #painting #gothic
A procession of dark-robed figures, carrying a cross at the front, moves from a small arched stone bridge across the grassy landscape, dissappearing into the mist. To the right stands a tall, narrow stone structure resembling a small Gothic tower with a pointed spire and a crosses. Bare trees and low bushes frame the foreground, and faint outlines of larger trees are visible in the background. The sky is pale and hazy.
November 24, 2025 at 1:51 PM
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whatters2.bsky.social
#OwlishMonday

🎨Melchior D'Hondecoeter
November 24, 2025 at 12:08 PM
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andy-paciorek.bsky.social
November 23, 2025 at 3:14 AM
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andy-paciorek.bsky.social
the parlour in the Merchant’s House Museum
~ Hal Hirshorn (circa 2011)
November 23, 2025 at 11:17 PM
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ninaantonia13.bsky.social
#FolkloreSunday Ghosts are a close companion of the winter season. The days grow shorter, the nights longer & even though we no longer live by candlelight, the death of the year & the chill in the air reawaken the spectral realm with more solemnity than Halloween.
November 23, 2025 at 9:41 PM
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emmaelie.bsky.social
Stanisław Masłowski

Moonrise, 1884

Good night
take care🌙
trailing moon, reflected as a dotted i in water, viewed through winter trees and low clouds, ghostly sunset at the horizon
November 6, 2025 at 3:38 AM
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trahias.bsky.social
Väinö Blomstedt

( 1871 - 1947 ) Finnish painter

"Winter Evening" oil on canvas

81 x 54 cm, 1900

#art #painting #painters #BlueSkyArt
November 22, 2025 at 5:22 PM
ruinsofdespair.bsky.social
Cold in the earth—and the deep snow piled above thee,
Far, far removed, cold in the dreary grave!
Have I forgot, my only Love, to love thee,
Severed at last by Time's all-severing wave?

– From 'Remembrance' by Emily Brontë 1845

#poetry #romanticism #books #booksky #snow
Caspar David Friedrich: Friedhof im Schnee (Graveyard under Snow) 1826 An oil painting of a snow-covered graveyard with simple wooden and metal grave markers, an old stone archway in the background, leafless trees behind it, and two shovels stuck in a partially dug grave in the foreground. The sky is light shade of grey.
November 23, 2025 at 10:09 AM
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gr8flbluejay.bsky.social
Edward Steichen, American (1879-1973), Flatiron Building, 1904-05, three-color halftone print, printed 1906, 21.6 x 16.5 cm, private collection
November 22, 2025 at 3:43 PM