Here is a poem by Sarah Binns, the Mt. Holyoke College undergraduate who took second place in the the 85th annual Glascock Poetry Contest at Mount Holyoke College last month. Previous winners and contestants have included Sylvia Plath, John Koethe, Kathleen Norris, Katha Pollitt, Mary Jo Salter, and Larissa Szporluk. Sarah’s ekphrastic poem was inspired by the Sargent painting, above.
Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose
after John Singer Sargent
Eden could have been like this: two girls,
awake with wonder
glowing in their hands,
the carnations listening to the swish-swish-sway
of fabric in the breeze; nothing else
touches them here.
But someday the lanterns will hang from a veranda,
and even the roses will have lost
all memory of the earlier garden.
Years after tonight, the lily’s pollen
will be found, sprinkled
in the ruffles of a yellowed linen dress.
— Sarah Binns