Landscape Painter, Jamaica - Analysis

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I watch him set up easel,

Both straddling precariously


A corner of the twisted, climbing
Mountin track.

A tire-less Humming-bird, his brush, - METAPHOR


Dips, darts, hovers now here, now there,
Where puddles of pigment
Bloom in the palette’s wild small garden.

The mountains pose for him -PERSONIFICATION


In a family group —
Dignified, self-conscious, against the wide blue screen
Of morning, low green foot-hills
Sprawl like grandchildren - SIMILE
Of seated elders. And behind them, aloof,
Shouldering the sky, patriarchal in serenity
Blue Mountain Peak Bulks.

And the professional gaze


Studies positions, impatiently waiting
For the perfect moment to fix
Their preparedness, to confine them
For the pleasant formality
Of the family album.

His brush a Humming-bird


Meticulously poised…
The little hills fidgeting, - PERSONIFICATION
Changelessly changing,
Artlessly frustrating,
The painter’s art.
Summary:
The speaker observes a painter as he sets up his easel (the wooden frame for holding a
canvas) to paint the view from the mountain track. He describes the way the painter
repeatedly dips hs brush into the colours on his palette, and how the mountain seem almost to
be people posing for a family portrait.
Blue Mountain in the background, and little foothills in the foreground.
Instead of being still, though, the landscape is perceived to be alive and moving
“changelessly changing”, thus challenging the skill of the artist.

This poem is about the famous Jamaican painter, Albert Huie.


Read about the landscape painter here → https://nlj.gov.jm/project/albert-huie-1920-2010/

Analysis:

Metaphor: the paintbrush is compared, in a metaphor, to a humming-bird. The comparison is


effective because we see how the brush dips repeatedly into the various pigments just like the
humming-bird tirelessly dips into the flowers in a garden. We also notice how the brush, like
a humming-bird, can also hover— quit still as the painter observes the scene. The device
causes the reader to consider the rapid movement of the brush, its occasional stillness and the
loveliness of the assorted colours. We are struck by the beauty of nature.

Contrast: A contrast is set up between movement and stillness, and between art and nature.
The mountains are still, with Blue Mountain in the background “shouldering the sky”. In
contrast, the little hills seem to be “fidgeting”, “changelessly changing”. Similarly, the paint
brush “dips”, “darts”, “hovers” in it's busy motion, but it can still be “Meticulously poised”.
The use of contrast is effective because it lends movement to landscape that would otherwise
be quite still. The sense of movement and change also connects us to the message of the
poem: the challenge of truthfully capturing the ever-changing mood of nature in a work of
art.

Personification: This device is crucial to the poem. The mountains and hills are personified
and compared to family members posing for a portrait for the family album. The effect is to
give the reader the sense of how grand, still and dignified the elder are, and how the little hills
in the foreground seem to be fidgeting like grandchildren might do around the knees of seated
adults. The reader imagines the play of sunlight and shadow on the little hills, giving a sense
of constant movement.

Tone & Mood-

The eye of the speaker moves from painter to mountains and back to the painter again. The
place is leisurely, and the free verse is appropriate for the conversational style. As the gaze
is directed to the mountains (“dignified elders”), the paintbrush (“tireless humming-bird”),
and the children in the portrait (“low green foothills”), the mood is of respectful admiration
and mild amusement.

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