"In Praise of Limestone"

W.H. Auden's poem "In Praise of Limestone" was one of the poems we read this week in our class (Modern British Literature). The poem appeared in our reading schedule at the same time I happened to be working with Plaster of Paris to make a mold of a Roman theater mask so I could hang it on the brick wall in my garden above the cobalt glazed ceramic birdbath. The original mask is heavy and also might disappear if hung outside, so I am attempting to make a duplicate with a plaster cast. I forgot how messy plaster can be, although I have been living in its dust for the last few weeks.

The last few weeks my house has been covered with dust in my apartment from builders who were replacing our roof. Before they could complete the roof, it rained heavily and ended up raining into our apartment and ruining much of the ceiling. The work continued inside the house with sheets of plastic covering everything in several rooms, but the sheet rock and plaster dust still managed to escape and leave a thick layer of fine white dust on everything in the house so I'm still working on excavating the rooms. The workers even left all the sheets and mess for an entire weekend where we had no room to move except a small area in one room to sleep on the floor! Boy, can I relate to this poem!! I have slept, ate and drank the dust of limestone or similar compound for a while now. So, while I am enjoying the results of our new roof and ceiling, rediscovering my space and belongings, and shaping new forms of creativity with the very limestone dust he speaks about, I thought I would take some time as Auden did, to praise the Limestone.

I couldn't help to think of the area around Naples that he visited while writing his poem and all the landscape and ruins that surround the area. The past and the present are embedded in the landscape and I found some images of the limestone features included below:

Italian Car in Ischia: This little lime-colored car would be fun to drive around in to see all the sites/sights...


Herculaneum Fresco: An example of pigment in limestone which retains its color over time.

Herculaneum - Painted Columns: Similar pigmentation used in limestone as well as the walls which have been layered over the centuries.


A Pompei couple: Dressed up in "the best" for their portrait, the baker and his wife want to be remembered as literate and elegant.



Plaster cast of a Pompei citizen caught in "the worst" destruction at the time of Mt. Vesuvius' eruption:

Neptune, Triton with various sea creatures/Tiled Womens' Bath which contains no water, but still retains "an older colder voice, the oceanic whisper:"


View from Ischia:

Sometimes the best interpretation of a poem is how we interact with it, whether by interacting with the text mentally or through hands-on experience. Limestone and water seem to mix well, but Auden says it so beautifully in the last lines of his poem:

Dear, I know nothing of
Either, but when I try to imagine a faultless love
Or the life to come, what I hear is the murmur
Of underground streams, what I see is a limestone landscape.