Angel

This is the angel that marks the entrance to the St Magnus Cathedral graveyard.

Angel iconography is strangely alluring. (Wings of Desire is probably my desert island movie...) I like the way that this one holds the flame of victory aloft, and also averts its eyes from mortal death and tragedy. It's a triumphant and also respectful (sad) stance and very Victorian.

I was trying to think, in the car on the way home, of a classic angel quote, and all I could come up with was this old favourite from John Donne. Which is really about love.

TWICE or thrice had I loved thee,
Before I knew thy face or name ;
So in a voice, so in a shapeless flame
Angels affect us oft, and worshipp'd be.
Still when, to where thou wert, I came,
Some lovely glorious nothing did I see.
But since my soul, whose child love is,
Takes limbs of flesh, and else could nothing do,
More subtle than the parent is
Love must not be, but take a body too ;
And therefore what thou wert, and who,
I bid Love ask, and now
That it assume thy body, I allow,
And fix itself in thy lip, eye, and brow.

From 'Air and Angels'.