Borrowing from Hamlet

Scene at the Tate

Even in the gallery, there’s gossip.

Strangers talk about what was staged
––the model with silver gown
stayed hours in a tin tub, laid out
like caviar––to the general view,
a maiden voyage. And Millais, 
Pre-Raphaelite, realist
to the manner born, grappled
with the Surrey flies, windy gusts,
and a notice for trespassing––
murder most foul of the hay. 

He confided to a friend,
“painting of a picture under
such circumstances would be greater
punishment to a murderer
than hanging.” Not to mention
the medical bill for Lizzie Siddal
of the bath, as warmth elapsed
for the sake of painstaking detail.  
Art exacts a price and so the heart––

Ophelia floats in her perpetual spring.

~ LCMH