Vilhelm Hammershøi’s Moonlight, Strandgade 30, 1900–1906.
Hammershøi the painter of silence depicted this parlor in his apartment in Copenhagen at morning, noon, and night. In this scene, he employed deep lavender hues and soft brushwork to capture the effect of moonlight. The emptiness of the space accentuates the qualities of the illumination and the geometric patterns of the architecture. Through the window and across a courtyard can be glimpsed another part of the artist’s apartment.
I sensed you there deep in my darkest hour,
Beneath my thought, behind my childhood fear.
I felt your shadow cast upon my soul
As with eyes shut I turned to face the wall.
I felt your icy breath upon my back,
Your strangling noose about my tiny neck.
I’ve known you since I was just five years old,
When first I felt your finger pointing cold,
Colder than family could overcome,
Too cold for hearth or church or mother’s womb.
I had to ask Does everybody die?
And then I had to ask the reason why.
You haunted me so that I feared the night
Although I woke each morning to the light
And have for more than half a century.
Though I admit that you still frighten me,
The answer is that everybody dies
And each day older is the greater prize.
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