AMY & THE LONG ENGAGEMENT... My poem about two paintings from Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery...

 Two paintings by Arthur Hughes in Birmingham’s Art Gallery…

Amy and The Long Engagement…

I would stand

And glare.

I could not avoid the painting’s fascination.

The furtiveness, the secretiveness, the helplessness

And yet the acceptable companion of a dog

Forced this scene into a huddle, 

With the gentleman seemingly unaware

Of the woman’s eager, pleading expression.

Amy’s name, carved into the bark of the tree,

Is now smothered by creeping ivy’s muddle, 

Affording the depression of a long engagement,

Or indeed perhaps the fellow’s indignant procrastination…

I would stop

And stare.

I could not bear the lady’s anticipation.

The tenderness, the secretiveness, the happiness

And yet the incongruous absence of her man

Lent this scene quite a sadness,

With the woman indulgently aware

Of her betrothed’s scarred and binding expression.

Her name, scored into the bark of a tree

Is quite fresh, in keeping with romance’s madness,

Suggesting the impression of a short engagement

And indeed perhaps the fellow’s insincere association…

Pete Ray

16th January 2024…

These two paintings hanging in Birmingham’s Art Gallery affected me a lot when having to talk to pupils about some of the work on display. 

I had no academic art background at all and so I would try to draw attention to unusual things in some of the pictures on display and try to encourage the children to make comments about what they thought might be happening…

The above verses are just some thoughts of mine about two Arthur Hughes offerings: ‘Amy’ and ‘The Long Engagement’. 

Ivy had grown over the carved name of Amy on the tree-trunk and I wondered about the man procrastinating, leaving Amy hanging on…

Was he already married perhaps, or betrothed to another?

Or was he a scoundrel?

All conjecture of course…

It was apparently fine to walk in woods with a lady if there was a chaperon, or a dog present… 

I never liked the chap’s countenance however and so I have always considered him a bounder, or a villain…

She looked too nice for him anyway…