She and she were best of friends
A century past, in a sunny place;
Brought back to vibrant life today
In art by William Merritt Chase
I saw a gallery of his work
And stopped and gazed, hour on hour’
And felt, somehow, that I had been
Where he had been, by some strange power
Been on the beach, or in a grove,
Been in a park, or off in Spain;
Or been with two friends on a lawn
In some way that I can’t explain
And like this woman and this dog
I felt a kinship to this man
I’d never heard of anywhere
Before I saw his work, firsthand
Work like this is so much more than representational, not an illustration, not an impression, not an abstraction for some one else to interpret but rather the way Chase personally saw and responded to the places. I like your poem for you feel this too.We get to meet the person skilled enough to paint so well.And it is pretty wonderful.