Treading the Press

    Image: Benozzo Gozzoli, The Vintage and Drunkenness of Noah(1468-69). Fresco. Campo Santo, Pisa, Italy. 

    Benozzo Gozzoli

    The Campo Santo at Pisa
     

    FROM the trellis hang the grapes 
    Purple-deep ; 
    Maidens with white, curving napes 
    And coiled hair backward leap, 
    As they catch the fruit, mid laughter, 
    Cut from every silvan rafter. 

    Baskets, over-filled with fruit, 
    From their heads 
    Down into the press they shoot 
    A white-clad peasant treads, 
    Firmly crimson circles smashing 
    Into must with his feet's thrashing. 

    Wild and rich the oozings pour 
    From the press ; 
    Leaner grows the tangled store 
    Of vintage, ever less : 
    Wine that kindles and entrances 
    Thus is made by one who dances. 

     

     

    Benozzo Gozzoli

    The Campo Santo at Pisa
     

    FROM the trellis hang the grapes 
    Purple-deep ; 
    Maidens with white, curving napes 
    And coiled hair backward leap, 
    As they catch the fruit, mid laughter, 
    Cut from every silvan rafter. 

    Baskets, over-filled with fruit, 
    From their heads 
    Down into the press they shoot 
    A white-clad peasant treads, 
    Firmly crimson circles smashing 
    Into must with his feet's thrashing. 

    Wild and rich the oozings pour 
    From the press ; 
    Leaner grows the tangled store 
    Of vintage, ever less : 
    Wine that kindles and entrances 
    Thus is made by one who dances.