Scholars and sippers of poetry can find most any literary verse, ode, or rune with a click or two to marvelous online collections. None of these surpasses the work of Anniina Jokinen at her “labor of love” Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature. Click the image above to read John Donne’s The Triple Fool while enjoying an image from Vermeer to suggest its origin. You can hear the poem read by opening the audio clip.

The Luminarium has been a major resource for scholars and lovers of English literature since 1996. It is not a product of academia or educational publishers. With a few ads, a knowledgeable store, and a few friends for support, Luminarium is the creation of an individual 21st century literary devotee.

For a node to learn about the Anglo-Saxon impact that remains up to our times turn to a Modern Poetry lecture from Open Yale courses. These people of long ago echo to us in Ezra Pound: Here is an expatriate poet writing in the voice of the Anglo-Saxon wanderer, a figure deprived of his kinsmen, who is out in the elements, far from land, far from his nation and home.

For much more from the Anglo-Saxons, browse at Georgetown the Labyrinth Old English resources. Western Michigan University’s Medieval Institute has an excellent introduction to The Anglo-Saxons and Their Language and a page at the University of Pittsburgh diagrams Anglo-Saxon church structures.

This learn node from American history begins where the Smithsonian American Art Museum hosts the website where you can:

“Take a virtual journey to meet American Indians of the 1830s with artist, ethnologist, and showman George Catlin. This site compiles paintings, historical documents, and commentary from contemporary experts so you can explore the intersections of two cultures, both in Catlin’s time and today.”

The museum also welcomes visitors to a George Catlin Indian Gallery where 34 of his paintings can be studied individually. As an example of following history and art through the fenceless trail of the open Internet:

- Catlin’s painting of Pipestone Quarry leads us to locate a National Parks Website about that famous Minnesota location.
- The Pipestone County Museum provides very local and detailed memory of the area’s history.
- And the famed poem The Song of Hiawatha by Longfellow echoes in our thoughts:

On the Mountains of the Prairie,
On the great Red Pipe-stone Quarry,
Gitche Manito, the mighty,
He the Master of Life, descending,
On the red crags of the quarry
Stood erect, and called the nations,
Called the tribes of men together.

More learn nodes at: learnodes.com