Harry Guest
William Dyce, Pegwell Bay, Kent
A recollection of October 5th, 1858, for C.M.F.
Cold yellow afternoon. Low tide.
The jaundiced cliffs
crawl halfway across the canvas.
Brown wooden spars
of the breakwater separate
the painter’s son
scarved and coated against the chill,
trailing his spade,
and his womenfolk who in their
shawls and heavy
skirts stoop, peer, idle, from the few
stragglers who this
bleak autumn are shrimping, tending
the three donkeys
or starting to stroll back over
this desolate
chalk beach with net and catch. The same
indifferent light
defines, unites and isolates
them all. Not one
is looking up at the comet.
The jaundiced cliffs
crawl halfway across the canvas.
Brown wooden spars
of the breakwater separate
the painter’s son
scarved and coated against the chill,
trailing his spade,
and his womenfolk who in their
shawls and heavy
skirts stoop, peer, idle, from the few
stragglers who this
bleak autumn are shrimping, tending
the three donkeys
or starting to stroll back over
this desolate
chalk beach with net and catch. The same
indifferent light
defines, unites and isolates
them all. Not one
is looking up at the comet.
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