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Toggle Line Numbers1<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 2<author> 3 <person id="1394" sex="2" role="author"> 4 <name> 5 <firstname>Eavan</firstname> 6 <lastname>Boland</lastname> 7 </name> 8 <life-events> 9 <date ty="birth" circa="false" suffix="ad">1944</date> 10 <text-value>(1944–2020)</text-value> 11 </life-events> 12 <biography>y</biography> 13 </person> 14</author> 15
Dressed in the colours of a country day —
Grey-blue, blue-grey, the white of seagulls' bodies —
Chardin's peasant woman
Is to be found at all times in her short delay
5Of dreams, her eyes mixed
Between love and market, empty flagons of wine
At her feet, bread under her arm. He has fixed
Her limbs in colour and her heart in line.
In her right hand the hindlegs of a hare
10Peep from a cloth sack. Through the door
Another woman moves
In painted daylight. I think of what great art removes:
Hazard and death. The future and the past.
A woman's secret history and her loves —
And even the dawn market from whose bargaining
She has just come back, where men and women
Congregate and go
Among the produce, learning to live from morning
to next morning, linked
20By a common impulse to survive, although
In surging light they are single and distinct
Like birds in the accumulating snow.
To cite this poem:
MLA
“From the Painting “Back from Market” by Chardin.”
Columbia Granger's World of Poetry Online.
2026.
Columbia University Press.
24 Sep. 2026.
<http://www.columbiagrangers.org>.
Chicago Manual of Style
“From the Painting “Back from Market” by Chardin.”
Columbia Granger's World of Poetry Online.
http://www.columbiagrangers.org
(accessed September 24, 2026).
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3 <fulltext>y</fulltext>
4 <subjects>
5 <subject id="3102">
6 <subject-name>Paintings and Painters</subject-name>
7 </subject>
8 <subject id="4628">
9 <subject-name>Women</subject-name>
10 </subject>
11 <subject id="3177">
12 <subject-name>Peasants</subject-name>
13 </subject>
14 </subjects>
15 <sources>
16 <source id="5678">
17 <source-title>The Penguin Book of Contemporary Irish Poetry</source-title>
18 </source>
19 </sources>
20 (: Variant sources/title :)
21 <sources-variant-block />
22 (:This was specifically set to the root author; change to the selection 2008-03-12 bug 0310 :)
23 <authors>
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27 <firstname>Eavan</firstname>
28 <lastname>Boland</lastname>
29 </name>
30 <life-events>
31 <date ty="birth" circa="false" suffix="ad">1944</date>
32 <text-value>(1944–2020)</text-value>
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34 <biography>y</biography>
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40 <title id="00000150445P01">From the Painting “Back from Market” by Chardin</title>
41 <firstline>Dressed in the colours of a country day</firstline>
42 <lastline>Like birds in the accumulating snow</lastline>
43 </citation-form>
44 <fulltext>
45 <stanza>
46 <line n="1">Dressed in the colours of a country day —</line>
47 <line n="2">Grey-blue, blue-grey, the white of seagulls' bodies —</line>
48 <line n="3">Chardin's peasant woman</line>
49 <line n="4">Is to be found at all times in her short delay</line>
50 <line n="5">Of dreams, her eyes mixed</line>
51 <line n="6">Between love and market, empty flagons of wine</line>
52 <line n="7">At her feet, bread under her arm. He has fixed</line>
53 <line n="8">Her limbs in colour and her heart in line.</line>
54 </stanza>
55 <stanza>
56 <line n="9">In her right hand the hindlegs of a hare</line>
57 <line n="10">Peep from a cloth sack. Through the door</line>
58 <line n="11">Another woman moves</line>
59 <line n="12">In painted daylight. I think of what great art removes:</line>
60 <line n="13">Hazard and death. The future and the past.</line>
61 <line n="14">A woman's secret history and her loves —</line>
62 </stanza>
63 <stanza>
64 <line n="15">And even the dawn market from whose bargaining</line>
65 <line n="16">She has just come back, where men and women</line>
66 <line n="17">Congregate and go</line>
67 <line n="18">Among the produce, learning to live from morning</line>
68 <line n="19">to next morning, linked</line>
69 <line n="20">By a common impulse to survive, although</line>
70 <line n="21">In surging light they are single and distinct</line>
71 <line n="22">Like birds in the accumulating snow.</line>
72 </stanza>
73 </fulltext>
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75 <author>
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77 <name>
78 <firstname>Eavan</firstname>
79 <lastname>Boland</lastname>
80 </name>
81 <life-events>
82 <date ty="birth" circa="false" suffix="ad">1944</date>
83 <text-value>(1944–2020)</text-value>
84 </life-events>
85 <biography>y</biography>
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87 </author>
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95 <title id="00000150445P01">From the Painting “Back from Market” by Chardin</title>
96 <firstline>Dressed in the colours of a country day</firstline>
97 <lastline>Like birds in the accumulating snow</lastline>
98 </citation-form>
99 <fulltext>y</fulltext>
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102</poem>
103
