THE Thames nocturne of blue and gold
Changed to a harmony in grey;
A barge with ochre-coloured hay
Dropt from the wharf: and chill and cold
The yellow fog came creeping down
The bridges, till the houses' walls
Seemed changed to shadows, and St. Paul's
Loomed like a bubble o'er the town.
Then suddenly arose the clang
Of waking life; the streets were stirred
With country waggons; and a bird
Flew to the glistening roofs and sang.
But one pale woman all alone,
The daylight kissing her wan hair,
Loitered beneath the gas lamps' flare,
With lips of flame and heart of stone
Impressions? Interpretations? References?
6 comments:
The pale woman with wan hair, lips of flame and heart of stone sounds like Callista Gingrich, but I don't think she's quite old enough to have known Oscar Wilde.
she's a hooker, she's got to be
That's a harsh thing to say about the woman who might be the next First Lady of the United States.
A little disturbing.
Some interesting parallels with the Masefield poem - contrast in tone between the romantic images of the first three verses and the harsh picture in the last.
Nice use of color and sound - the saturated colors of the city at night are fading to the greys of a foggy dawn. But, as the city comes to life, has the street woman died in the night?
I promised myself I wouldn't read anything about this poem before posting a first impression.
But, now that I have, I see that the 'nocturne in blue and gold' refers to something very specific, as a denizen of the Tate might well know.
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