Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, Danish
Oh Dear. It Turns Out That When Dawn’s Husband Vowed He Would Sit Naked Atop the Flagpole in the Middle of the Town Square Before He Ate Her Confounded Meatloaf Again, He Wasn’t Bluffing, 1845
Oil on canvas
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Info about this artist can be found in my comment at an earlier blog entry.
/// Gudrun stood in her doorway to cry
as her neighbors all came running by.
They looked upward to spy
a young man who can fly
(in a hot-air balloon in the sky).
/// In the gondola is Gudrun’s guy.
When this morning he kissed her goodbye,
she said, “Don’t go too high;
something might go awry.”
She’s afraid that he’ll fall out and die.
/// This took place in eighteen-forty-five.
Back then flyers did not all survive.
By a windage mistake
he came down in a lake.
Nearly drowned, but returned home alive.
/// Gudrun hugged, but berated her beau.
“That balloon flight was foolish, you know.
Don’t get high anymore
and, to even the score,
on your next birthday I’ll go below*.”
*(In addition to the balloon, he also piloted a small submarine.)
/// Gudrun’s boyfriend liked skirting the edge,
so she forced him to give her this pledge:
On the ground he must stay,
saying nothing risqué.
(He agreed… but will probably hedge.)
/// Some will follow the crowd, Gudrun found,
even though they don’t know where they’re bound.
Can the mob’s hive-mentality
lead them to criminality?
Yes! They’ll do things that shock and astound.
/// So, because of this Gudrun concluded
not to run after groups that colluded.
But that’s no guarantee
that she’ll be frenzy-free.
Even lone-wolves can now be deluded.
/// The young woman who stood in her doorway
wondered “Why are they all running your way?”
Toward the lone border guard.
World geography’s hard;
Denmark has no land border with Norway.