The Pair-Oared Shell
(by Robert Fagles) (after the painting by Thomas Eakins) Resting over the oars a moment, stroking done, I see them waiting still, that spring evening in 1872, the Biglin brothers, drawn up under the granite piers of the old Columbia Bridge: riggings lifting their oarlocks off the gunnels, their clean lithe shell pale gold in the May dusk, gold even the Schuylkill dripping off their oars, the river that winds back into my blood... a shot rings out! the starter's gun ablaze-- their glistening ropy shoulders bending, flexing, backs in the oars and heart's blood in the oar-beat pulsing, whipping the craft down river round the stake then fighting the current back to end where we begin-- rowing for Jordan, brothers, row us now, home free. (from The Sewanee Review Vol. 101, No. 1, Winter, 1993, p. 34) |