AUTHOR'S NOTE: I first visited TMAG in 2018 on a family holiday to Hobart, having previously found inspiration in a couple of mainland Australian paintings for formal poems in the style - or rather, one of the styles - of John Betjeman. As such, I visited TMAG half in search of further inspiration, which struck a few times; one such was in the form of this W. C. Piguenit painting (Faith, Hope and Charity Islands, Port Esperance, Tasmania), a work I found somewhat grim and muted in its Romantic fashioning. I have attempted to convey this in some form in the poem, and through the thoughts of its persona.
The three of them are sitting low
On the horizon, and – but no,
In front of the horizon – though
It’s not too clear.
The three of them are faint and brown,
And look like they’re about to drown,
Like they’re about to sink straight down
And disappear.
I don’t know how they named these three –
Why Faith? Why Hope? Why Charity? –
Or maybe I just need to see
Through others’ eyes.
I wonder how each got its name;
Was it off-hand? Was it a game
Of chance? And are they not the same,
Apart from size?
And are they named from left to right,
With Faith the closest to the light,
And Hope the one that isn’t quite
Halfway between?
And why is Charity so wide,
Its presence so much magnified?
Why only on its right-hand side
Can trees be seen?
And underneath those clouds of grey,
They’re silent still, as if to say,
“We stand here at the edge of day
As you stand there;
We know that you will leave this hall,
But, as we hang upon this wall,
We’ll stand here longer than you all,
Low, brown, and bare.”
Stephen McCarthy is a young writer from Sydney. He won the 2018 Nan Manefield Young Writers’ Award and the Senior Poetry Prize in the Mosman Youth Awards in Literature for his poem, “On the Ellipsis”. He has had works published in the UNSWeetened Literary Journal, including poetry, short stories and non-fiction. His poem "Cabbage-Tree Day Break" was featured on the website of the Society of Classical Poets, while his short story "Hello Llandilo" was published by WestWords in the BAD Western Sydney Crime Writing Anthology for 2023.