Looking at Klimt’s Frieze for Beethoven

Gold cherry

By onemorething

Thu, 20 Feb 2020
  • 6237 reads
24 comments
 

I told you that I had been a nubile bride myself once,

my spirit fabricated from gossamer and silk,

my heart formed from alabaster clouds

that drifted beyond the pleas of these pale angels.

 

My hopes observed, my hopes stripped

to the threads of naked wishes immersed

 in all the decisions that follow childhood 

and innocence - to be sinned against or sinner

 

when I have never felt sure of anything. 
 

All these women on plaster, painted 

as seducers, tempters, monsters of misery,

as if I turned away they might hiss 

their toxic terror at me, any goodness

trapped and obscured here in their victim hood.

 

No man will rescue me or them.

 

No men really shine even if they insist

they are armoured in one hundred suns,

none will arrive golden,

this is their heavy sword of disappointment.

 

I will have to save myself.

 

You said your mother was a Gorgon.

Pfff, I said, my father was Typhon.

He weaved the alphabet into discord

and fire-breathed the births of despots.

 

But I loved him sometimes.

 

There's a skewed humanity to every tyrant:

a frailty to the kind of fear that persuades them 

to cut out the tongues of poets, to arm wrestle the gods.

 

I shall weep for my sorrows, you must cry for your own.

 

These women are collected as if they were tears,

a bitter deluge, but they are more patient than you and I,

I think, not bound by temporal demands, they wait

for the return of the music of poetry

and the resurrection of love. 
 

Image from wikimedia commons of part of the central section of the frieze. Are we allowed artistic boobs on the front page? Let me know if not and I'll take it down. 
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ffragment_of_the_frieze_created_by_Klimt.jpg

 

 

 

Certificate 15
Poem
Unclassified

Comments

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

This is wonderful onemore - and you will see I have borrowed your forum post for the new Inspiration Point and linked to this perfect example of what's required!

Thank you for letting me know - apologies for not replying to your email - it's been that kind of week!

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

This is our Facebook and Twitter Pick of the Day!

Please share/retweet if you enjoyed it as much as I did

 

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Oh thank you! I was worried about it for a number of reasons: that maybe it was really obscure without seeing the whole of the frieze and that I'd displayed art boobs in a picture amongst other things. Excited that it's the Inspiration Point too. No worries re the email, I suddenly realised I could post a link to it on the Forum anyway. Thanks for the cherries. :) And the golden ones. Thanks very much! (Was just mid-reply.) :)

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

We will have to see what Facebook makes of the boobs laugh

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Oh. Shall I change it to a different section of the frieze? I only chose this one because it shows Typhon. 

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

No - let's see what happens. Ewan thinks we will get more traffic this way laugh

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Ha. Ok. Boobs and traffic. 

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

You had 38 reads at your last comment - I think this is going to be a winner!

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Oh god. Imagine the disappointment. Just a poem. Not a boob in sight. 

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

it's a brilliant poem!

 

Submitted by drew_gummerson on

Yes it is. 

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thank you Drew. :)

 

Submitted by monodemo on

wow, what a great poem!

Submitted by onemorething on

Thank you! That's a lovely thing to say. Thanks for reading it. :) 

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

I like how you wander in and out of the painting, and memory and conversation. And like the picture, the female seems to hold up the image of the male

 

No men really shine even if they insist

they are armoured in one hundred suns,

none will arrive golden,

this is their heavy sword of disappointment.

 

and

There's a skewed humanity to every tyrant:

a frailty to the kind of fear that persuades them 

to cut out the tongues of poets, to arm wrestle the gods.

 

 hard hitting  poem with the seeming ephemeral beauty of the painting

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thanks Di. I didn't intend it to be like that initially, but it sort of came out like that and I thought maybe that would work in terms of a conversation as well as thoughts about a painting. Happy you liked it. Thanks for reading it. :)

 

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

Rachel, this must be the apotheosis of your poetry; it can't be surpassed, surely. But, having followed your work closely, I'm certain you are going to prove me wrong. Not only is your use of the language exquisite, your knowledge of Greek mythology is impressive.
I have experimented with ekphrastic poetry in the past but not on this scale. I have found an old example of mine based on a painting by De Chirico 
https://www.abctales.com/story/luigipagano/dietary-uncertainty-poetry-mo...

Best wishes, Luigi

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thank you for your incredibly kind comment, Luigi. Am off to read your poem now too, and come to think of it, I am pretty sure you have written a poem based a painting this year too if I remember correctly. Thanks for reading my poems, it means a lot to me. Rachel x

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Oh, THAT'S what they are. I need to develop phone envy. What a mature (as in intellectually, classically aware etc) poem this is. I'm certainly not familiar with the mythical basis, but it works very well without that knowledge - it's just another layer of intensity and complexity and buttresses the theme of the poem. Without all that, it's cleverly and enjoyably written. I can feel the weight and know that there's so much going on in the shadows you've expertly shaded. On top of all that, I can go on Wikipedia now and start digging and better informing myself. Thank goodness poetry - though some might like to disagree - is still a very rich and varied craft.

Parson Thru

Submitted by onemorething on

Ha, yes. It's a good a reason as any for a phone upgrade. Thank you for your lovely comment. Am glad it works ok as a poem minus the context of the painting as I wasn't sure that it did. Am happy for my poem to be described as mature too though that might be like the first time that I got referred to as 'madam' as opposed to 'miss' in a shop and I knew what that meant. Thanks for reading my poem. :)

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

My pleasure. :)

I was probably reading things in that are not there. :))

Parson Thru

Submitted by onemorething on

Erm. It could have been me actually...I thought you meant about seeing the boobs re the phone. Now it just seems like I'm obsessed with breasts because I keep talking about them. I'll shut up about them now...

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Oh, and I totally missed the ekphrastic thing. Had to go and look up the meaning again. I've read in a couple of places (I can never remember these things), was it Plato talked about the artist and the carpenter and the distance from God? Might have been Nietzsche for all I know. Where does that put the reader/viewer? An ekphrastic poem on a scene depicting a myth or real event creates an interesting dynamic there. That's if Plato, Nietzsche or the bloke I was sitting next to on the bus wasn't talking a load of rubbish in the first place. Anyway, I really like this poem.

Parson Thru

Submitted by onemorething on

Sounds like Nietzsche, but you're quite right, it's Plato. I just looked it up. Though I wish you had heard it on a bus. And yes, another distance away altogether I suppose if you are the reader or viewer. Fascinating, thank you. :)