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New Battersea Bridge Nocturnes

Emily Hasler
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Summary

By using the word ‘nocturne’ I wished to indicate an artistic interest alone, divesting the picture of any outside anecdotal interest which might have been otherwise attached to it.

—James McNeill Whistler

Blue and Gold

Bogged banks, banked boats. Water like tarmac.

The bridge one long glad oblong. Slow going. Each bus

a bulb bobbing unevenly on October's early dark.

A gull. Dogs. Bold globules ahead blend to a glow.

A blonde passes by again. The air is gummy,

heavy with breath. Sight is a dulled blade now.

Blue and Silver

Not the veil of night, evening reveals villainy. Things

express their evil-twinnedness. Lines deviate, swerve,

sharpen, serrate. Living views. Vast ornate sleeves

riven of water, woven with fine metal fibres. Water thrills

at the embankment—calm, not calming.

Viciously, day is relieved of its definite edge.

Black and Gold

Blocking the bend, the bridge presents a barrier,

a hazard. Wrought band, solid and silent. A few

gilt spandrels snag the light. Dark demands

gangs of pyrotechnics—noise helps to dock thought.

An abandoned can will somehow gladden. The moon

is a sallow gong, mirrored in the glistening blanks.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Built Environment
, pp. 26 - 27
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Print publication year: 2018

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