Tuesday, June 26, 2007

The Kermess

NOTE: This poem by William Carlos Williams was not in my book, Pictures From Brueghel and other Poems. I found it on another blog when I was searching for the pictures to put with the poetry. I had to add it. If anyone knows of other Williams poems about Brueghel's art, please let me know! To read a well written commentary on this poem go to Chris Couto's blog


The Kermess by Pieter Brueghel the Elder

The Dance
by William Carlos Williams

In Breughel's great picture, The Kermess,
the dancers go round, they go round and
around, the squeal and the blare and the
tweedle of bagpipes, a bugle and fiddles
tipping their bellies (round as the thick-
sided glasses whose wash they impound)
their hips and their bellies off balance
to turn them. Kicking and rolling about
the Fair Grounds, swinging their butts, those
shanks must be sound to bear up under such
rollicking measures, prance as they dance
in Breughel's great picture, The Kermess.

Children's Games

Children's Games by Pieter Brueghel the Elder


Children's Games
by William Carlos Williams

I

This is a schoolyard
crowded
with children

of all ages near a village
on a small stream
meandering by

where some boys
are swimming
bare-ass

or climbing a tree in leaf
everything
is motion

elder women are looking
after the small
fry

a play wedding a
christening
nearby one leans

hollering
into
an empty hogshead

II

Little girls
whirling their skirts about
until they stand out flat

tops pinwheels
to run in the wind with
or a toy in 3 tiers to spin


with a piece
of twine to make it go
blindman's-buff follow the

leader stilts
high and low tipcat jacks
bowls hanging by the knees

standing on your head
run the gauntlet
a dozen on their backs

feet together kicking
through which a boy must pass
roll the hoop or a

construction
made of bricks
some mason has abandoned


III

The desperate toys
of children
their

imagination equilibrium
and rocks
which are to be

found
everywhere
and games to drag

the other down
blindfold
to make use of

a swinging
weight
with which

at random
to bash in the
heads about

them
Brueghel saw it all
and with his grim

humor faithfully
recorded
it


Saturday, June 23, 2007

The Parable of the Blind


The Parable of the Blind
by William Carlos Williams

This horrible but superb painting
the parable of the blind
without a red

in the composition shows a group
of beggars leading
each other diagonally downward

across the canvas
from one side
to stumble finally into a bog

where the picture
and the composition ends back
of which no seeing man

is represented the unshaven
features of the des-
titute with their few

pitiful possessions in a basin
to wash in a peasant
cottage is seen and a church spire

the faces are raised
as toward the light
there is no detail extraneous

to the composition one
follows the others stick in
hand triumphant to disaster

Friday, June 22, 2007

The Wedding Dance in the Open Air



The Wedding Dance in the Open Air
by William Carlos Williams

Disciplined by the artist
to go round
& round

in holiday gear
a riotously gay rabble of
peasants and their

ample-bottomed doxies
fills
the market square

featured by the women in
their starched
white headgear

they prance or go openly
toward the wood's
edges

round and around in
rough shoes and
farm breeches

mouths agape
Oya!
kicking up their heels

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

The Corn Harvest


The Corn Harvest
by William Carlos Williams

Summer!
the painting is organized
about a young

reaper enjoying his
noonday rest
completely

relaxed
from his morning labors
sprawled

in fact sleeping
unbuttoned
on his back

the women
have brought him his lunch
perhaps

a spot of wine
they gather gossiping
under a tree

whose shade
carelessly
he does not share the

resting
center of
their workday world

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Haymaking


Haymaking
by William Carlos Williams

The living quality of
the man’s mind
stands out

and its covert assertions
for art, art, art!
painting

that the Renaissance
tried to absorb
but

it remained a wheat field
over which the
wind played

men with scythes tumbling
the wheat in
rows

the gleaners already busy
it was his own –
magpies

the patient horses no one
could take that
from him

Peasant Wedding


Peasant Wedding
by William Carlos Williams

Pour the wine bridegroom
where before you the
bride is enthroned her hair

loose at her temples a head
of ripe wheat is on
the wall beside her the

guests seated at long tables
the bagpipers are ready
there is a hound under

the table the bearded Mayor
is present women in their
starched headgear are

gabbing all but the bride
hands folded in her
lap is awkwardly silent simple

dishes are being served
clabber and what not
from a trestle made of an

unhinged barn door by two
helpers one in a red
coat a spoon in his hatband

The Adoration of the Kings


The Adoration of the Kings
by William Carlos Williams

From the Nativity
which I have already celebrated
the Babe in its Mother’s arms

the Wise Men in their stolen
splendor
and Joseph and the soldiery

attendant
with their incredulous faces
make a scene copied we’ll say

from the Italian masters
but with a difference
the mastery

of the painting
and the mind the resourceful mind
that governed the whole

the alert mind dissatisfied with
what it is asked to
and cannot do

accepted the story and painted
it in the brilliant
colors of the chronicler

the downcast eyes of the Virgin
as a work of art
for profound worship

The Hunters In the Snow


The Hunters in the Snow
by William Carlos Williams

The over-all picture is winter
icy mountains
in the background the return

from the hunt it is toward evening
from the left
sturdy hunters lead in

their pack the inn-sign
hanging from a
broken hinge is a stag a crucifix

between his antlers the cold
inn yard is
deserted but for a huge bonfire

the flares wind-driven tended by
women who cluster
about it to the right beyond

the hill is a pattern of skaters
Brueghel the painter
concerned with it all has chosen

a winter-struck bush for his
foreground to
complete the picture

Landscape With the Fall of Icarus



Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
by William Carlos Williams


According to Brueghel
when Icarus fell
it was spring


a farmer was ploughing
his field
the whole pageantry


of the year was
awake tingling
near


the edge of the sea
concerned
with itself


sweating in the sun
that melted
the wings' wax


unsignificantly
off the coast
there was


a splash quite unnoticed
this was
Icarus drowning


Self Portrait

These are two self portraits of Pieter Brueghel the elder, but neither of them seems to coincide with the image depicted in the poem. If anyone knows where I can get the right image, let me know!










































Author's note: Thank you to Juan Antonio Montiel for directing me to this portrait (read the comments for further information about this NON self portrait)






Here is the poem:

Self Portrait
by William Carlos Williams

In a red winter hat blue
eyes smiling
just the head and shoulders

crowded on the canvas
arms folded one
big ear the right showing

the face slightly tilted
a heavy wool coat
with broad buttons

gathered at the neck reveals
a bulbous nose
but the eyes red-rimmed

from over-use he must have
driven them hard
but the delicate wrists

show him to have been a
man unused to
manual labor unshaved his

blond beard half trimmed
no time for any-
thing but his painting

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Pictures from Brueghel

Okay, so William Carlos Williams had this awesome inspiration from looking at the paintings of a Dutch painter named Brueghel. I was inspired by his poetry and by Brueghel at a recent exhibit at the Phoenix Art Museum, so I am posting the paintings along with the poems for your viewing and reading pleasure.
Starting tomorrow because right now my rice is burning and I have sushi to make.
T