Page 20 - Contrast1985v27

THE BURIAL OF ATALA

After the painting by Anne Louis Girodet

Atala, do you sleep in peace?
The smoothness of you brow
suggests no agony,
Only heavenly tranqullnc
And perhaps just a tinge of sadness.

In your repose is captured love?
Flawless beauty.
Your shroud accentuates
The splender of your perished youth.
Would God above wish such a loss
To keep a vow, yet slaughter heavenly

Pure', primitive savage,
The weight,o.f your great misery
is evident in each muscle flexed.
Your grasp tells of such grief
As you clutch her knees,
and shower heaven-sent tears upon her feet.

Passionate savage,
Can your untainted heart understand
Such useless vows offered up
Between God and man?

Margaret Jacobs

- 18-