WEBVTT

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The other poem is about
a specific painting.

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It's called "The Composition."

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This is in my new book just
out called Evening Train.

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The painting is a Dutch
17th century painting

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by Emmanuel de Witte.

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Most of his paintings are
church interiors, or sometimes

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church exteriors, in
which there are figures,

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but the figures are
very unimportant factors

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in the composition.

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This one is a domestic
interior, and it's

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in the museum in Montreal.

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There's another version
of it in Holland,

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which I don't
remember having seen,

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and I haven't had
the opportunity

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to compare them and see if there
are differences between them.

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"The Composition."

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"Two rooms away, seen
through the open door,

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the servant-maid raises
her head to listen.

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Times the strokes of
her broom to the music's

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crisp, golden wavelets.

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Autumn sun and shadows
well-defined overlay

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the floortiles--

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antiphonal transverse
strips over squares

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of white and black.

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Filtered through little panes
in long and lofty windows,

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the light hints at green
in its morning pallor.

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But red, red is the
lord of color here--

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the draperies, bedside
carpet, ceiling-beams,

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elaborate hanging lamp, a chair.

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All these and more are
a glowing Indian red--

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and red above all,
with its canopy,

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valance, ample curtains
the big four-poster.

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Up and dressed, the young wife,
white cap and dimly auburn

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skirts, red jacket
basqued with ermine tips,

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is playing the harpsichord,
beginning the day with delight,

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while snug still in
the bed's half-dark

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reclines the young
husband, leaning his head

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on one hand intently,
blissfully, watching

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and listening.

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A human scene-- apex
of civilized joy,

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attained in Holland,
the autumn of 1660,

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never surpassed, probably
never to be matched.

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But if the same scene had
been painted differently,

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not only with other colors
but from another distance,

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perspectives differently
disposed, more curves, less

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play of severe rectangles--

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if it had been a composition
that lacked this austere

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counterpoint of
forms which evoke,

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in brave resplendent red, the
very twang and trill and wiry

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ground bass of the notes
ringing forth under her fingers,

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if it had been
reduced to anecdote,

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we'd never have known that once,
in eternity, this peaceful joy

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had blessed an
autumnal morning."

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I should point out since
this is a new book just out--

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and I believe they've
got copies here now--

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that at the bottom of page
24, there is an error.

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It's a missing dash after
the word "rectangles."

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It's the very last
line of that page.

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The poem runs onto page 25,
and the last line of page 24

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is missing that dash.

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These things do happen,
however much you proofread

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and other people proofread.

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It's so maddening.

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