Benjamin West’s Ben Franklin, by Ann Taylor

Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity From the Sky, by Benjamin West (USA) 1816

Benjamin West’s Ben Franklin
 
Red, black, gold oil on slate,
draped in stormy robe,
face glowing in skylight,
his hero looks up,
ascends beyond the inches
of his small picture frame.
Set ambiguous, boots solid
on airy cloud,
he’s a near-apotheosis.
Designer of everyday
hearth-stove, bi-focals
and swim flippers,
this Ben's superhuman
raised among angelic putti
holding taut his kite string,
monitoring his vial and rod,
enticing electricity. 
It's not as lofty
as the Sistine's 
heavenly finger-strike
between Father and Son,
but Ben's bent knuckle
reaches high, receives too
a spark of power
his key igniting
an illuminating flash. 

Ann Taylor

Ann Taylor is a Professor of English at Salem State University in Salem, Mass. where she teaches both literature and writing courses. She has written two books on college composition, academic and free-lance essays, and a collection of personal essays, Watching Birds: Reflections on the Wing.  Her first poetry book, The River Within, won first prize in the 2011 Cathlamet Poetry competition at Ravenna Press. A chapbook, Bound Each to Each, was published in 2013. Her most recent collection, published in 2018, Héloïse and Abélard: the Exquisite Truth, is based on the twelfth-century story of their lives.