Four portions of everything on the menu for M'sieur Monet! Poem by Penelope Shuttle

1902. Monet's staying at The Savoy

in the same rooms

occupied by Whistler a few years ago

and successfully avoiding

the denotive shackles of too exact a realism

in his paintings of The Thames,

busy adding extra bridges -

all his boatmen are named Charon

ferrying the dead

from shore to shore



Only winter will do for Monet

London wrapped

in that mysterious cloak of fog

and mist

created by London's basin situation


Only in winter

can Monet paint the Thames

without risking the overabundance

of verisimilitude

though unlike Turner

he does not resort to the trick

of making the world taller, buildings,

mountains, waterfalls,



but like Turner and Whistler

he offers us

(and so will Dufy)

a world (a Thames) of radiant precision



Look sharp Billy! Four portions of everything for M'sieur Monet!