Page:Songs of the Road Doyle.djvu/31

Rh Mud-bespattered, spoiled, and botched,

Water sodden, fungus-blotched,

All the outlines blurred and wavy,

All the colours turned to gravy,

Fluids of a dappled hue,

Blues on red and reds on blue,

A pea-green mother with her daughter,

Crazy boats on crazy water

Steering out to who knows what,

An island or a lobster-pot?

Oh, the wretched man's despair!

Was it lost beyond repair?

Swift he bore it from below,

Hastened to the studio,

Where with anxious eyes he studied

If the ruin, blotched and muddied,

Could by any human skill

Be made a normal picture still.