“Mrs. Scott’s House” by Elissa Greenwald

After Edward Hopper’s Mrs. Scott’s House

Edward Hopper, Mrs. Scott’s House, 1932, oil on canvas

Mourning her husband, lost at sea in a hurricane,
Mrs. Scott quivered whenever a gale stirred water to a froth
just beyond their house on the bay
as if her husband’s spirit were reaching out to her,
seeking help she could not give.

She busied herself with the baby, born six months after Mr. Scott died,
and the four other children.
She named the baby Rose for the bushes outside their cottage
and the joy and sorrow she represented, blossom and thorn.

In the 30s, Mrs. Scott moved the family away from the shore
to this abandoned house in Truro’s rolling hills.
They planted cabbage, potatoes, melons,
raised chickens, brought eggs to sell in Wellfleet
sustaining them through the poor years.
They could still see the bay but now
were sheltered from the storms.

She took in boarders after the money
from selling chicken and eggs ran out.
Sometimes neighbors came to partake in meals
for which she charged a dime. The dimes kept Rose in ribbons,
the older children in shoes.

The tall bald man, the painter from across the way, often came.
He stared at the children, touched the pink ribbon in Rose’s hair,
painted her once. He seemed to be considering
how to paint the black square of shadow outside the house.

By the time the painting was finished, Mrs. Scott was gone,
too early lost from care and overwork. Rose hung the painting in the house.
After her death, it made its way south, all the way from
Massachusetts to Virginia.

Is this a true story? As true as any we tell ourselves
to shelter in a house of words
against the black square of emptiness
and away from the dark sea’s roar,
nestled in the warm embrace of the land.

In Hopper’s painting,
Mrs. Scott’s house still floats
above two lush hills like vast thighs.
Somewhere beyond it lies the sea.
Before it, the black square
looms like death,
which swallowed Mrs. Scott
and will someday swallow the house,
but the painting
and the ocean
abide.

Elissa Greenwald taught English for 30 years to high school, college, and adult learners. In 2024, she received an MFA in Creative Writing from William Paterson University in New Jersey. Her poetry and essays appear in Brevity, Humana Obscura, Miracle Monocle, and other journals.  She is currently at work on a novel, a family saga set on Cape Cod, which she has visited for over 50 summers. A recent walk on the old railroad bed in Wellfleet and Truro near Hopper’s house and the one depicted in the painting inspired this poem.

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