Little Tippler

This painting is an abstract interpretation of the pub crawl of the "little Tippler" from Dickinson's poem (below) who reels from flower to flower, drunk with summer, ending up "leaning against the Sun" in a drunken stupor.

I taste a liquor never brewed -

From tankards scooped in pearl -

Not all the Frankfort Berries

Yield such an Alcohol!

Inebriate of air - am I -

And Debauchee of Dew

Reeling - through endless summer days -

From inns of molten Blue.

When “Landlords” turn the drunken Bee

Out of the Foxglove's door,

When Butterflies - renounce their “drams” -

I shall but drink the more!

Till Seraphs swing their snowy Hats -

And Saints - to windows run -

To see the little Tippler

Leaning against the - Sun!

- F207 (1861)