No Queen Rises

by Muldoon Elder - 1968
oil on canvas  55 x 40 inches

The title of this painting comes from a very short Wallace Stevens poem titled "Depression Before Spring." It starts with the lines, "The cock crows / but no queen rises,"and depicts the speaker awaiting the arrival of his love, her blond hair "dazzling as the spittle of cows threading the wind," but sadly, since it is not yet Spring, "no queen comes in slipper green."
___M.E.