Edward Robert Hughes, British
“Pegasus! I Told You To Go Before We Left. I Sure Hope Those Folks Down There Brought Umbrellas With Them,” Before 1902
Gouache and pastel on stretched paper
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Info, or perhaps links that point to more info, about this artist can be found here, here (archived if necessary), here, here, here, here (can be read in full for free on Fridays), here, and here, perhaps in addition to what’s in his Wikipedia page.
/// In this Symbolist work, “A Dream Idyll,”
a winged steed soars, sans saddle or bridle.
Mounted clutching his pinion,
the girl, in my opinion,
shows she’s foolish; perhaps suicidal.
/// Late at night, above London they fly,
hidden by wispy clouds in the sky.
She disturbs his wing’s beat.
From her unsteady seat,
a nude soon may plunge down from on high.
/// That’s a great height from which to fall down,
aiming for the Thames near London Town.
Fallen Angel from Heaven?
(Or a doxy from Devon?)
If she lives she’ll have earned great renown.
/// Some have said she may be a Valkyrie.
If that’s so, kindly answer my query.
Would this Nordic blonde charmer
go to work without armor?
(She’s a witch, says an alternate theory.)
/// Clutching plumes from his wing in a clump,
looking downward she swivels her rump.
Swings her right leg to bring
it beneath the left wing.
She’s preparing to dismount and jump!
/// And yet, why would this girl take a dive?
She’s not likely, this plunge, to survive.
She’s addicted to thrill—
even those that might kill.
Only then she feels really alive.
/// Yes, she comes alive from a good scare,
but to fall from here— how does she dare?
She had trained her steed well
to swoop down when she fell
and she’ll land on his back in mid-air.
/// A free-spirited poor orphaned waif,
on her flying horse she can feel safe.
It’s a sidesaddle ride
because sitting astride,
from the friction, she’s liable to chafe.
> or <
/// In the summer she’d come to despise
swarms of pesky, loud-buzzing horse flies,
but when this winged horse flies
with her through cool dark skies,
she can see the advantage of size.
> or <
/// When her husband starts getting “romancy”
Freyja knows that refusal is chancy.
In her mind, (in their bed),
thoughts turn inward instead,
and she goes off on great flights of fancy.