THE VENUS POOL
John Torrance

(William Toplis, R.A. painted many views of the cliff scenery of Sark, to
some of those whose features he gave names by which they are known today.)

He named it well; the painting should be better.
The pool's too close and fills the bottom quarter,
you lose the round containment of the water.

A draughtsman first, he traced each joint and fissure
in these huge rocks - but missed their architecture,
the reverent way they seem to hold their treasure.

And overcoloured them, with tints of sirloin
and rose-petal instead of cool and solemn
greys against the burning blue of heaven.

His fussy greens have blurred the water's pure
transparency, where vision plunges sheer
down to a stillness that is deep yet clear.

These fringing weeds, the branching yellow tines
and pink sea-moss, and slender brown sea-vines
that spiral up, are purged from his design;

ditto the firefly dance and skitter-glitter
of water-light when playful breezes scatter
sun-sparks like blown mica. Now I admit a

critic should prove his strictures, paint for paint,
and if time stretched, I'd try. But since it won't
these verses must suffice to make my point,

and somehow summon to this well of dreams
epiphanies in which the goddess swims -
revealing, more than Toplis, famous limbs.