These swan door handles are on the door of a church in St Colombo’s, Co., Sligo in Ireland. Again, while the verdigris makes them really stand out, can you imagine how gorgeous they would have been when they were new and shiny!

The photographer says that Yeats (William Butler) is buried not far from this church, and his grandfather was the rector there. Sligo is where Yeats spent most of his childhood. Reading Yeats’ poetry, which has a beautiful rhythm that always makes you want to read it aloud (and then cringe at your imperfect rendering of his words!), you can relate it so intimately to this sort of architectural styling:

We rode in sorrow, with strong hounds three,
Bran, Sgeolan, and Lomair,
On a morning misty and mild and fair.
The mist-drops hung on the fragrant trees,
And in the blossoms hung the bees.
We rode in sadness above Lough Lean,
For our best were dead on Gavra’s green.
From ‘The Wanderings of Oisin’

You can see that the swans were crafted individually, rather than having their mould reversed for the one on the other side – especially around the feet, beak, and tail feathers you can see slight differences. They are such an appropriate symbol for a church door, as swans mate for life, and one of a church’s most joyful (and popular) functions is as a wedding venue.

Photo credits: Flickr

          

This entry was filed under Handles We Hold Dear. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.