Your husband, Nicolas advised a king
Royal gold lending luster to his name
Your’s overshadowed by pendant and ring
Known only as wife in your brushstoked fame
💀
Were you an object, even in your own time?
Only there to adorn your husband’s sleeve
History often commits this crime
Against the daughters of curious Eve
☠️
Forever captured in corset and frame
Pretty bows can’t hide your resignation
Melancholy eyes, your lot in life proclaims
Or are my reflections pure conflation?
💀
Another man obsessed with legacy
Reducing you to memento mori
——————-
Authors note:
The painting is “Portrait of a Woman, wife of Nicolas Hellincx” by Frans Pourbus the Younger. I saw this at the National Gallery of Ireland and was drawn to her expression, which appears to me to be resignation or disappointment. But I was also struck by the fact that while we know her husband, somehow her first name has been lost to us, according to its little placard:
About the Creator
Sean A.
A happy guy that tends to write a little cynically. Just my way of dealing with the world outside my joyous little bubble.
The steps to losing a child
Step One: Lose a child. Not what anyone wants to happen and nothing you can do to change it, but you can go through steps to becoming happy again. You can go through steps to loving again. You can go through steps to become a new you because after losing a child you will never be the same person you once were.
By Tabitha Hinkley3 days ago in Fiction
Comments (8)
An enjoyably fascinating sonnet. I will have to try one someday.🤔🙃
Captured in corset and frame - what a turn of words 😁
Oh wow! Your inspiration for this poem is awesome. Thanks for the additional information in the end ❤️
Nicely woven lines and some pretty clever rhymes. And If I'm not being rude, she could totally be an ancestor of Christopher Walken, the Actor. I see a resemblance.
How interesting! Fantastic ekphrastic sonnet, Shaun! Always love D.J.’s so of course I enjoyed this as well!
👏🤩Sad she is forgotten - she looks so uncomfortable in the layered and innumerable-piece outfit! Like she is thinking “hurry up and don’t expect me to look at your or smile.”
A fantastic and wonderful poem! Good job
A powerful improvisation upon an arresting image!