Angels' Heads, a poem by Rosa Emma Salaman (1853)
Source Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=43029
open_content_license: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license Date: 2022-03-02
Last Updated: 2025-02-18
Categories: Visual Meditation
Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., Angels, English Romanticism, English vernacular prayer, Prayers as poems
Excerpt: "Angels' Heads" by Rosa Emma Collins née Salaman was published in her bound collections of poetry, Poems (1853), p. 56-58. . . .
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Angels’ Heads.
From a picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
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Angels’ heads!—oh, blessed vision!
That would picture things so fair,
Lead us to that world elysian,
For a while to linger there.
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Here, the blue transparent sky
Circles round a face divine;
There, the gaze of that soft eye
Purely, brilliantly doth shine.
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We long to pierce the pale, pure ether,
That in mystery doth fling
Its shadow on the radiant feather
Of that gentle angel’s wing.
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With eyes upturned, and looks of wonder,
Is that little seraph mute?
Or, with rosy lips asunder,
Sings he to some unseen lute?
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One bows down in meek submission;
Love that little soul doth fill—
Love that seeks, in heavenly mission,
To obey its Maker’s will.
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Have those golden locks been ever
Made the theme of earthly love?
Were fond parents doomed to sever
From such blessed ones above?
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No; methinks those beauteous heads
Ne’er were tossed by earthly billows;
Clouds of heaven their only beds,
Sunshine through those clouds their pillows.
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Rest, and rapture, tranquil gladness;
Wings outspread, the air to cleave;
Joy, without one touch of sadness;
Heaven possessed, no earth to leave.
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“Angels’ Heads” by Rosa Emma Collins née Salaman was published in her bound collections of poetry, Poems (1853), p. 56-58. For the rabbinic Jewish conception of the keruvim appearing in the likeness of children, find Rabbi Abbahu’s teaching in Chagigah 13b and Sukkah 5b.
Source(s)
Contributor: Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
Co-authors:
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Name: Rosa Emma Salaman
Bio: Rosa Emma Collins née Salaman (1815-1898), was a poet and translator of Hebrew and German. Poems, published in 1853, was reportedly the only book accepted by Queen Victoria in the year of mourning following Prince Albert's death in 1861. In the United States, her poetry appeared in Isaac Leeser's Occident and American Jewish Advocate. The daughter of Simeon Kensington Salaman (b.1789) and Alice Cowan, Rosa Emma was one of fourteen siblings in a large and literary Jewish family in London, part of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community. Two sisters, Kate Salaman and Julia Goodman, were painters -- the former of miniatures and the latter, a prolific portraitist. Her brother, Charles Kensington Salaman, was a British composer and pianist. Her husband, Judah Julius Collins, was a warden of the Western Marble Arch Synagogue in London's West End, and purported to be a descendant of the Baal Shem of London. Their son, Edwin Collins, was a Jewish educator.
Website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Emma_Salaman
Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/rosa-emma-salaman
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Name: Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
Bio: Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also translates prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)
Website: https://aharon.varady.net
Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/aharon-varady-transcription
Featured Image:
Title: A_Cherub_Head_in_Different_Views_(Miss_Frances_Gordon,_by_Sir_Joshua_Reynolds
Caption: A Child’s Portrait in Different Views: ‘Angel’s Heads’ by Sir Joshua Reynolds (ca. 1887)
