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Sea Marshes in Winter, from “A Genesis”

Gabor Peterdi

Artwork Details

Sea Marshes in Winter, from “A Genesis”
1915-1976
Gabor Peterdi
etching on paper
20 ¼ x 14 7/8 in. (51.43 x 37.78 cm);22 x 18 in. (55.88 x 45.72 cm)
Gift of Herbert and Nancy Berhard.
1976/2.98B

Description

Physical Description:

A white page with the text "SEA MARSHES IN WINTER" and the following text: 

Marsh hummocks that were a sabbath hill
for a witches' dance of lives the last weather I looked,
go Christian as Calvary in the stone still
and sackcloth sky. At four, a wind-hooked
glacier of cloud chills a last thought and the snow
starts. And all that night that comes at once
the snow sifts dry as salt, scratching the window.
Then day leaks back from the edge. A half-light hunts
somewhere to settle, a place to begin, but slumps
onto the black-streaked sheet and the dead white humps
between me and the sea. It never quite —
not all that day — makes up to enough light
to see a world by. And I still look at this
world as a world's will be seen — in what light there is.

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