Monday Quadrille hosted by Bjorn in the dVerse Poets Pub ~ the prompt word today is "snow" or any derivative of it.
The Mill, 1964, by Andrew Wyeth
somber
march past house and stable
to the family burial plot
across snowy fields
lifeless and barren
every day a funeral procession
as one by one they lost their children
a horse drawn caisson
bearing tiny handmade coffins
for whom the bell tolls
That is so sad, and the lifeless and barren fields symbolizes the tragic circumstances. Very powerful.
ReplyDeleteThis is so sad to read - tiny handmade coffins.
ReplyDeleteVery sad poem, Helen. Sadly it is still happening in the world today. Well done.
ReplyDeleteDearest Helen,
ReplyDeleteA sad and devastating reality...
Hugs,
Mariette
So well written, Helen. The imagery is so full of pathos, making plain the devastation of a community.
ReplyDeletePandemics unfortunately result in such loss. So sad but so well written, Helen.
ReplyDeleteThose time when cholera (or any disease took so many lives)... today we should be grateful for advances of medicine and clean water.
ReplyDeleteI too love Andrew Wyeth’s work, Helen! This is a sad ekphrastic quadrille; how awful to see regularly ‘a horse drawn caisson / bearing tiny handmade coffins ‘.
ReplyDeleteWOW, Helen... This really paints a grim picture...
ReplyDeleteMuch love,
David
SkepticsKaddish.com
Sad, stark in its beauty. Perfect poem for the painting.
ReplyDeleteHelen I like this. Right away two thoughts came to.mind. First was that my grandmother died in the 1917, 18, flu epidemic whem my mom was only seven. Second, we burried my mom in a Nebraska snowstorm in 1999. My sister told me soon after that mother had felt she had killed her because she had brought the flu home, catching it at school.
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Jim of Jim's Little Photo and Poem Place. I used the same poem, my Quadrille a about snow, for Friday writings.
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Helen, I know you've been studying the Wyeths. Wondering whether it was members of the Wyeth family that were struck by cholera? Or were you inspired to write this poem by looking at the painting??
ReplyDeleteI wrote "Cholera" years ago after watching a film (cannot recall the name) about early settlers who had to bury their children in the family cemetery. And I have been a lifelong fan of the Wyeth dynasty artists.
DeleteHelen, upon reading this, an exclamatory DAMN! exploded within my awareness. My next thought was of William Bradford's book "Of Plimouth Plantation." The settlers arrived in late December of 1620, and the first death was that of Bradford's wife who apparently committed suicide by jumping overboard in Cape Cod Bay before the main body of settlers had even stepped ashore. Of the 105 or so who landed, roughly half were dead by the time Spring arrived.ed.
ReplyDeleteP. S. OPB runs a very interesting program every so often about how the cause of cholera was discovered by a doctor named John Snow. I don't recall the name of the program, but I think it might be "Rx for Survival." If I learn that they are about to run it again, I'll let you know.
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