Anne Stevenson
Whistler's 'Gentleman by the Sea'
"Nature, who for once has sung in tune,
sings her exquisite songs to the artist alone."
J. M. Whistler 1885
He knew himself as Sunday in a hat,
Patrolling borders of a century that
Lectured the waves and watched them shuffling back.
Till paint abstracted him from joy of this,
Cancelled the certainty he must exist,
And made of him a gentlemanly mist.
Where does the ocean end, the man begin?
Rain and the waves debate beneath his skin.
Tides of his pearl-grey blood drag out and in,
While, soothed and veiled, the moody water breathes
Cerulean horizontals through his knees.
Nature persuades all elements to please
When to the artist Nature sings alone.
Then Art advises Nature in its own
Linseed-on-canvas, frame-begetting tone.
Page(s) 52
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