Margaret Hibbert
On Seeing the Portrait of Gilbert Sheldon in Lambeth Palace
The others watch from out of their long canvases,
Their fortitude and faith conveyed
Through many shades of grey.
But not him.
He's dark and built like a prize fighter,
He certainly looks as if he could use his fists.
Later I looked him up in some reference book
And found he'd done just that—
Defending his living.
It's as if he's fallen out of somewhere else
And by chance landed into this assembly of venerable souls.
A lost adventurer who has lived on the wilder side of life.
And in truth at times he had—
Defending his king.
But for all that there's refinement in his face,
Books large as stepping stones lie stacked at his feet.
Theology, philosophy, the Scriptures in Greek,
And he such an unlikely looking scholar—
Defending the scholar's right.
His eyes, dark as the times through which he lived,
Seem to mirror the calamity of loss,
Of things unspoken—known only to him,
Perhaps the price he paid for
Defending the lost.
Their fortitude and faith conveyed
Through many shades of grey.
But not him.
He's dark and built like a prize fighter,
He certainly looks as if he could use his fists.
Later I looked him up in some reference book
And found he'd done just that—
Defending his living.
It's as if he's fallen out of somewhere else
And by chance landed into this assembly of venerable souls.
A lost adventurer who has lived on the wilder side of life.
And in truth at times he had—
Defending his king.
But for all that there's refinement in his face,
Books large as stepping stones lie stacked at his feet.
Theology, philosophy, the Scriptures in Greek,
And he such an unlikely looking scholar—
Defending the scholar's right.
His eyes, dark as the times through which he lived,
Seem to mirror the calamity of loss,
Of things unspoken—known only to him,
Perhaps the price he paid for
Defending the lost.
Gilbert Sheldon (1598–1677) English prelate. Chaplain to
Charles I. Archbishop of Canterbury from 1663 to 1677.
Charles I. Archbishop of Canterbury from 1663 to 1677.
Page(s) 47
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