Post by Ross McCague on Feb 20, 2009 17:10:51 GMT -5
(for J.M.W. Turner)
Colour with force erupts into the world.
Forms emerge from the unnatural surge,
Wrack of pleas drawn far past appeal;
No wind to keep the soul above torrential seas:
These are slaves worth more in death;
Turgid mockery of dreams in flaming bronze.
Slave ships will always sail the unlit seas,
Find safe harbour in the human brain.
Their agony more real, blazing in fiery dread,
Than the skeletal captain and lean, hand-picked crew.
Their chains never drop below the liquid floor;
They rattle in remorse, constrain memory, contract love.
Fate prefigures what is to be done; imagine if you dare
Sea monsters devouring headfirst
Refuse of guiltless propositions.
"The Slave Ship" or "Slavers Throwing overboard the Dead and Dying — Typhoon coming on" is a painting by the British artist J. M. W. Turner, first exhibited in 1840. The subject of the painting is the practice of 18th century slave traders who would throw the dead and dying human 'cargo' overboard during the middle passage in the Atlantic Ocean in order that they might claim the insurance for 'drowning'.
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Slave-ship.jpg
Colour with force erupts into the world.
Forms emerge from the unnatural surge,
Wrack of pleas drawn far past appeal;
No wind to keep the soul above torrential seas:
These are slaves worth more in death;
Turgid mockery of dreams in flaming bronze.
Slave ships will always sail the unlit seas,
Find safe harbour in the human brain.
Their agony more real, blazing in fiery dread,
Than the skeletal captain and lean, hand-picked crew.
Their chains never drop below the liquid floor;
They rattle in remorse, constrain memory, contract love.
Fate prefigures what is to be done; imagine if you dare
Sea monsters devouring headfirst
Refuse of guiltless propositions.
"The Slave Ship" or "Slavers Throwing overboard the Dead and Dying — Typhoon coming on" is a painting by the British artist J. M. W. Turner, first exhibited in 1840. The subject of the painting is the practice of 18th century slave traders who would throw the dead and dying human 'cargo' overboard during the middle passage in the Atlantic Ocean in order that they might claim the insurance for 'drowning'.
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Slave-ship.jpg
