The Reverend Robert Walker Skating 1790s by Sir Henry Raeburn
Dressed in solemn tones,
the ruddy cheeked minister
skates blithely
across an iced expanse
A sombre evening,
grey clouds mist hills,
a dismal backdrop
to his meditative movement
Maybe it is a Saturday
and he is musing
on a sermon for the morn
He glides elongated figure eights
alone, introspective,
thoughts skimming
on hushed blades
His progress hypnotic
in its tempered ease
Assuaged action
smoothly repeated
Circle, cross, circle, cross
His is a contemplative mood
Absorbed, he neither
pauses or hastens
A pensive propensity,
dramatic and comic,
he slides passively
over ice
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