Tanagra: the Lady in Blue (Dame en bleu)
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
As stiff as any well-dressed Barbie doll
This sculpture from the time before the age
Of Alexander’s conquering, the small
Blue figurine is not so much a gauge
Of ancient worship as it is a piece
Of beauty, either for a little girl
To play with, or for funerary Greece.
The statuette once wore the blue, sea swirl
Aegean on its robe. Like almost all
Of ancient world evidence, the form
Is now beyond our understanding, small
And unintelligible. We would warm
To it, if only we could, but its stare
Cools feelings, like plain terracotta, bare.