Lawrence
Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
Portrait of Monsieur Gaudry and His
Daughter
For all Daughters and
Their Fathers
Monsieur is
dressed for a quiet evening at home
As is his daughter
in her cozy white wrap
Leaning
dutifully upon his shoulder as he predicts
With globe
and maps the empires of her mind
The empires
of her mind which she will rule
With subtle
wit and work instead of war
With armies
of thought and beauty and art and truth
To conquer
chaos and set the world aright
This guardian
of goodness in a little girl’s guise
(But inwardly,
I think, she’s rolling her eyes)
“The Geography
Lesson,” Louis-Leopold Boilly, 1812, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas
