POEM: A Girl At A Window

Girl of the rouged cheeks and tousled hair

you are now and yesterday an enigma.

Whom do you see in the street? Is it the

classy lady who plays the clavichord

next door as you scrub the tiled floor?

That paint-loaded shift is none too clean,

and your age unknown. Underage today ?

But each time I am near you, the lost

look makes me stop. You’re not a laughing

Murillo child,something’s amiss.But what ?

If I visit you tomorrow, will you tell?

Or will you be out, throwing dice,

drinking beer in a tavern,

examining a bird’s nest, posing,

doing what artists demand, and men?

Michael Baron has been writing poetry for many years, has published in small magazines and edited several anthologies, the last ,as a former resident of the Lake District , was the Cockermouth Poets 1700-2012. He loves the Dulwich Picture Gallery and is an avid reader of Dulwich OnView.

Along with 20 other poets, he is one of the LetterPress group of poets who launched their first anthology, published by Palewell Press, at the Poetry Cafe in Betterton Street, W1, at 19:30 on 26th November.

- - -
A Girl at a Window hangs in Dulwich Picture Gallery and has always been our (Dulwich OnView’s) profile picture. Michael’s poem refers to a few Dutch paintings which hang quite close to A Girl at a Window. You can see the paintings below.

First verse refers to the Girl at the Window next to a ‘classy lady who plays he clavichord next door’. Above is a painting of ‘A Woman playing a Clavicord’ by Gerrit Dou hanging at Dulwich Picture Gallery.

Also ‘drinking beer in a tavern’ (last verse) refers to ‘Interior of a Tavern’ by Adrien Brouwer. Image above.

‘examining a bird’s nest’ refers to Vase with Flowers by Jan van Huysum. Image below.

And ‘playing dice’ refers to ‘A Brawl in a Guard-room.