The oil meets the canvas today on our voyage ,with an exploration of the changing landscape of life.There is a sadness in the passing of time and the landscape looms large and becomes more imposing and unforgiving ,whilst the artist we are told is not “fully in the picture”
Perhaps it is a case of stepping outside the frame to see the whole picture or a conscious decision to be in the world and not of it.
The poem then turns into a very specific painting in the last three lines:-“The Fighting Temeraire”
The excellent BBC “In Our time” podcast devoted a whole episode to Turner’s famous work and this set the scene for the “old warship”-“fighting against an ill positioned sunset” in it’s last battle,which was with a tugboat.
The painting also makes a cameo in the James Bond movie “Skyfall” with an aging agent telling his new youthful quartermaster that what he sees is a “bloody big ship”.
Algo
Algo Poetry-Behind the Lines 