more dubious literary parallels

[regshoe]

Originally posted here on Tumblr. Note from Future Reg: This idea later turned into the fic The White Rose Whiter Blow.

From Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell:

To Lascelles’s surprize he saw that a small shoot was poking out of Drawlight’s right eye (the left one had been destroyed by the pistol blast). Strands of ivy were winding themselves about his neck and chest. A holly shoot had pierced his hand; a young birch had shot up through his foot; a hawthorn had sprung up through his belly. He looked as if he had been crucified on the wood itself. But the trees did not stop there; they kept growing. A tangle of bronze and scarlet stems blotted out his ruined face, and his limbs and body decayed as plants and other living things took strength from them.

From The Ballad of Reading Gaol:

They think a murderer’s heart would taint
Each simple seed they sow
It is not true! God’s kindly earth
Is kindlier than men know,
And the red rose would but blow more red
The white rose whiter blow

Out of his mouth a red, red rose!
Out of his heart a white!
For who can say by what strange way,
Christ brings his will to light,
Since the barren staff the pilgrim bore
Bloomed in the great Pope’s sight?

Tags: i don't have any particularly profound point to make here, i was just struck by the similar imagery used in similar ways, i love when basically-realistic writing sort of gestures towards the fantastic in description or illustrating themes, and seeing a parallel with a book that's actually about magic was pretty interesting