Old Partner – A Poem

Why choose to paint a broken down old kettle?

According to Artvee.com, John Frederick Peto was a trompe l’oeil specialist, and painted objects at their actual size. This old kettle painting is only 12.7 x 20.3 cm (5 x 8 in.), which, if a trompe l’oeil, would make it a smallish pint-sized kettle, the kind that would have been used over an open fire.

But the question remains – why paint a broken-down old kettle, even as a trompe l’oeil?

More of my ekphrastic poetry here. This is free verse.

Old Partner

These rivets hand-forged by labour.
Dents to shoulder and knee.
Life-saving surgery to the spout.

Your copper is lined with tin
but it has been as good as gold to me.
No finial grander than yours.

Though your patina’s indicative of age
I’m grateful, old kettle, old gooseneck.
You have sustained me for years.

©elsp 2026