Tuesday, 23 April 2013

"The green world thinks the sun..."


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Study of the Sky at Sunset: Eugène Delacroix, 1849, pastel on grey paper, 190 x 240 mm (Musée du Louvre, Paris)



The green world thinks the sun
Into one flower, then outraces
It to the sea in sunken pipes.
But twisting in sleep to poetry
Their blood pumps its flares out
Of earth and scatters them. And
They become, when they shine on
Beauty to honor her, a part of
Her laconic azure, her façade.





Study of Sky: Setting Sun: Eugène Delacroix, c. 1849, pastel, 190 x 240 mm (Musée du Louvre, Paris)
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8 comments:

  1. STEPHEN RATCLIFFE23 April 2013 at 07:53

    Tom,

    "The green world thinks the sun" -- coming out of the trees above Stinson last night, I saw such a sun setting as Delacroix sees here, I think.

    4.23

    light coming into fog against invisible
    ridge, shadowed bird standing on branch
    in foreground, sound of wave in channel

    experience relation between
    thinking, thought and

    thing in mind, in its place
    memory, say from that

    silver circle of sun rising above ridge,
    cloudless blue sky to the left of point

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  2. Nora23 April 2013 at 10:50

    I love this poem.

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  3. Nin Andrews23 April 2013 at 12:10

    As always, this is beautiful

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  4. Mose2323 April 2013 at 13:26

    The sunken pipes and the flares bring to mind an evening watching the flares from llandarcy Oil Refinery from the Mumbles, the sunset very beautiful.

    Her laconic azure, her facade: no naked nature here or tricks of authenticity; she's veiled or disguised.

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  5. Mose2323 April 2013 at 13:26

    That first Delacroix...

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  6. Marie W23 April 2013 at 15:56

    What a wonderful poem. For some reason, reading this I see myself sitting in the plant physiology lecture room, years ago, being very bored and absolutely uninterested. These words tell me more and evoke more than any scientific lecture could ever do.
    The green world thinks the sun,
    Into one flower
    ... a whole world in these words.

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  7. vazambam (Vassilis Zambaras)23 April 2013 at 23:04

    “The green world thinks the sun
    Into one flower”—

    Hard to think of one putting together a more
    Concentrated image than this one—
    Pure poetic photosynthesis .

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  8. TC24 April 2013 at 09:03

    Yes, this seems to have had to do with physiology.

    Plant physiology (poetry in slow motion) among other kinds.

    Beauty appears to have been (dare one say it without seeming overfamiliar) a person.

    Oh I do love that upstairs Delacroix.

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