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| Eve - Mid 19th Century Scrimshaw Nantucket Whaling Museum |
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| Adam - Mid 19th Century Scrimshaw Nantucket Whaling Museum |
Scrimshaw, 1849
The lure of gold is intoxicating,
far easier than whaling, they say.
From the harbor I watch sails fill,
sink into the horizon,
clutch Adam to my chest,
Eve in my pocket;
No need of temptation,
of dreams too big to fill.
Come back to me
and simplicity, keep a promise:
carve your mark
into flesh and bone,
come back and rest your elbow
upon fire's mantle,
Adam and Eve either side, reunited,
as you smile at me.
postscript: Adam & Eve Scrimshaw,
Mid 19th Century,
Nantucket Whaling Museum,
Artist: Anonymous
by Margaret Bednar, October 4, 2018
This is for "Artistic Interpretation - A Whale of a Tale".
"carve your mark" - meaning signature
Many scrimshaw are not signed by the artist - they are beautiful pieces of artwork and labeled "anonymous". The pair above are bone (ivory) from whale teeth.
HERE is a brief history of the end of Whaling on Nantucket and the lure of California gold.
8 comments:
"Anonymous" was a common thing for poets of that time as well. Not sure why. Emily Dickinson's 2 or 3 published poems were all attributed at the time to "anonymous."
There's a Gordon Lightfoot song that mentions scrimshaw. So now I've got "Restless" going through my head!
I can imagine those sailing ships setting forth, the long time it would take from one side of the country to the other, likely through southern routes as northern were too cold. A hard passage, and hard work and disappointment for many waiting at the other end. Such an interesting poem, Margaret. It really made me think. My poem is about whaling on the West Coast, First Nations style.
Thank you for hosting and for telling us all about your travels. I love scrimshaw. So many amazing artists have been known as anonymous!
I love the story you've created from the two pieces of scrimshaw, Margaret. It's amazing how something like that can spark the imagination. I also love the lines:
'Come back to me
and simplicity, keep a promise:
carve your mark
into flesh and bone'.
Perhaps I can foregive our ancestors for whaling and other destructive practices as they didn't understand that species extinction was possible. It is of course unlikely except for one creature that is Man who intends to go to Mars in any case. Sadly it has taken hundreds of years for man to understand that greed will kill the planet's occupants but this is still ignored by so many that just have too small a brain to understand.
I love the word scrimshaw, and the creative urge that has seen mankind turn many strange media into art but I must confess that I struggle to see the beauty in artistic by-products of hunting.. though I know that is my own particular prejudice.
Thank you, Margaret. I haven't learned much about whales. I do enjoy sighting them and have followed a science writer as she trailed a certain species in their calving and migrating north one year.
..
They are so beautiful and I have seen a few on the Antiques Roadshow... love how you weaved a story around their travel.. there and back again
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