Page 9 - After Waterhouse
P. 9
Miranda
after the 1916 painting
"O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is!
O brave new world,
That has such people in't!" Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act 5 Scene 1
Prospero's teal and scarlet skill enfolds her,
enthralled by his elemental fury she watches …
the ship flounders, breaks
in the ill-willed union of wind-churned
wintergreen sea violent metallic violet sky.
The artist’s model
could have been my own Miranda;
pale profile, the copper strands
only half restrained by lifted fingers,
framed by the rising rocks
she faces the future
hand over heart,
as terrified cries buffet it
she withstands the tempest bravely
unaware
that wonder could so swiftly replace sorrow.
__________
Miranda – The Tempest, 1916 by John William Waterhouse
