"Paid by my lord,one portrait, Lady Anne,
full length with bird and landscape,
twenty pounds and framed withal.
I say received.Verelst."
So signed,
the painter, bowed,
and took his leave.
My lady Anne smiled in the gallery
a small grave child, dark-eyed,
half turned
to show her five bared toes
beneath the garment's hem,
in stormy landscape
in a swirl of drapes.
And, who knows why,
perhaps
my lady wept to stand
so long
and watch the painter's brush flicker
between
the palette and the cloth
while
from the sun-drenched orchard
all the day
she heard her sisters calling
each to each.
And someone gave,
to drive the tears away,
that sulphur-crested bird
with great white wings,
the wise, harsh bird
- as old and wise as Time
whose well-dark eyes
the wonder kept and closed.
So many years to come and still,
he knew,
brooded that great, dark island continent
Terra Australis.
To those fabled shores
not William Dampier,
pirating for gold,
not Captain Cook
his westward course had set
jumped
from the longboat,
waded
through the surf,
and clapt his flag
ashore at Botany Bay.
Terra Australis,
unimagined land
- only that sulphur-crested bird could tell
of dark men
silently moving through trees,
of stones
and silent dawns,
of blackened earth
and the long golden blaze of afternoon.
That vagrant
which an ear-ringed sailor caught
(Dropped from the sky,
near dead,
far out to sea)
and caged
and kept,
till,
landing at the docks,
walked whistling
up the Strand
and sold it then,
the curious bird,
its cynic eyes half closed,
to the Duke's steward drunken at an inn.
And he lived on,
the old adventurer,
and kept his counsel,
was a sign
unread,
a disregarded prologue to an age.
So one might find
a meteor from the sun
or sound one trumpet
ere
the play's begun.
A contest entry
- Winklings and all AP friends. # 117 by Lyndon.
3500 points, ended September 22, 2008, 8 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Please tell me what you think
Comments
1 - 5 of 5
-
Highly interesting.
But since it's highly competent blank verse, why did you chop it up and lay it out in this way? I can't find a way to read it, drawing on this, which enhances the straightforward reading of it as blank verse.
I can't help feeling that Lyndon's comment misses the point.
And is it actually, to use that horrible word beloved by verbal show-offs, ekphrastic? My only misgiving was that "five bare toes" might give the impression of a shortage of feet, where "ten bare toes" may not be accurate in terms of the picture, but offers just a little alliteration.
Probably the best poem I have read on AP. -
-
Hey, thanks for reading and leaving such and interesting comment. This poem isn't mine actually. It was given to us in a contest and we had to give it structure.
-
-
I truly enjoyed watching the imagination following the bird. Lady Anne ended up being a footnote here...I expected you to follow the cause of her tears. It was a pleasant surprise. Nice work!
-
-
thanks
-
-
I had not expected this piece of prose
to become, in its narrative, centred free verse. However, your breaks were mostly acceptable.
Adding your comment:
1 - 5 of 5
