the earthstopper stops
the fluorspar night
his lantern
by the stream
tries to fill the dark
the dog’s head
has gone
down the hole
his spade
is about to slice
the turf
the sublime
filled in
for our sport
the fox isn’t there -
the woods
splinter and break
where it hides
a crooked land
of peaks
and gorges
without mountains
will keep the chase
to the flat
blocks the brush
from too much cunning
Oxford
29 January 2018
Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-1797) painted ” The Earthstopper” in 1773. It depicts an earthstopper blocking up the dens or earths of foxes the night before a hunt. It is set in the Peak District, at the headwaters of the Derwent. Fluorspar is a mineral mined in this geologically complex region. In the painting the effect of moonlight is like fluorspar.
I first saw this painting at Derby in December 2015. The Derby Museum and Art Gallery and the Barber Institute of Fine Art at Birmingham University are the best places to see Wright’s work.