Ferdinand Gueldry, French
How Ohio’s Kayakhoga River Got Its Name, 1888
Oil on canvas
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MASTERPIECE #3109
Ferdinand Gueldry, French
How Ohio’s Kayakhoga River Got Its Name, 1888
Oil on canvas
Info, and perhaps links pointing to more info, about this artist can be found here, here, and here, perhaps in addition to what’s in his Wikipedia page (Google translated French Wikipedia page has more).
/// Fifty French folks on boats here aspire
to move through from low waters to higher.
They are waiting in queues
in the lock, (l’écluse),
in their best canal-crossing attire.
/// Gateman’s bathroom break halted the flock
of these boaters, but no one’s in shock.
They do not watch the clock,
or sigh, grumble or mock.
(In the past he would go in the lock.)
/// The lock fills and they’re rowed through the gates,
quite a few of them couples on dates.
Past the lock’s higher level,
they’ll then dock, soon to revel
far away from their staid bourgeois mates.
/// If you’re in a stale bond you regret,
take a boat to a wild tête-à-tête.
Far across the canal
you can meet with your “pal”
plus four others to form a sextet.
/// Pretty Pam was perplexed as she sat
on that boat in her Panama hat.
Her companion, (no pal),
would traverse her canal
as a shortcut from this place to that.
/// Gondoliers cannot practice in Venice.
There’s no room; amateurs are a menace.
So they’re schooled in a lock,
where they learn not to block
other gondoliers—
take turns (like tennis).