PISSARRO

Camille

We stand before the views and wonder,
As foregrounds summon eyes to revel ;
Our gazing souls bestir to wander
Within a staggered feasting of surprise,
As pensioners hoe, or women kneel to weed
The garden patch, or tend the orchard plot -
Our gaze strays on, past border shrubberies,
Along stone walls, to rooftops, chimney pots,
Up patchwork hillsides, ploughed or cropped,
Where narrow strips diagonally dip,
Down from tree-horizoned, back-lit skies.

His visions hem us in with harmony,
And pack a view whose lease of life
Imbues a sense of muted glory,
Borne on furrowed earthern tones,
On russet browns like Autumn ferns,
On blues of roofs of slate, or summer robes ;
A joyous aeriness is here at play,
As if another world were here to stay,
That eyes us, teasing, playfully,
As touched by Grace, we turn away.