Peasant Wedding

Pour the wine bridegroom
where before you the
bride is enthroned her hair 

loose at her temples a head
of ripe wheat is on
the wall beside her the 

guests seated at long tables
the bagpipers are ready
there is a hound under 

the table the bearded Mayor
is present women in their
starched headgear are 

gabbing all but the bride
hands folded in her
lap is awkwardly silent simple 

dishes are being served
clabber and what not
from a trestle made of an 

unhinged barn door by two
helpers one in a red
coat a spoon in his hatband 

 


William Carlos Williams 

Pieter Brueghel, The Wedding Banquet (c. 1558)

Oil on canvas, approximately 49 inches x 64.5 inches. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.