Today we got inspired by the poetry of U. A. Fanthorpe about a painting, so let have a look at poetry and art fun. What you have to keep in mind, while reading this poem is that the poem is a humorous reflection on the art work of Paolo Uccello’s Saint George and the Dragon from 1470.
The poem takes the perpective of (1) the knight, (2) the princess and (3) the dragon. It is up to you now, as the reader, to discover who is who. If you want to read more about this poem e.g. the full explanation please visit poemanalysis.com. Just follow the link and you can read about the structure, meaning, and techniques that’s used. For the fun now try to read and understand it, who is who:
Not my best side
I
Not my best side, I’m afraid.
The artist didn’t give me a chance to
Pose properly, and as you can see,
Poor chap, he had this obsession with
Triangles, so he left off two of my
Feet. I didn’t comment at the time
(What, after all, are two feet
To a monster?) but afterwards
I was sorry for the bad publicity.
Why, I said to myself, should my conqueror
Be so ostentatiously beardless, and ride
A horse with a deformed neck and square hoofs?
Why should my victim be so
Unattractive as to be inedible,
And why should she have me literally
On a string? I don’t mind dying
Ritually, since I always rise again,
But I should have liked a little more blood
To show they were taking me seriously.
II
It’s hard for a girl to be sure if
She wants to be rescued. I mean, I quite
Took to the dragon. It’s nice to be
Liked, if you know what I mean. He was
So nicely physical, with his claws
And lovely green skin, and that sexy tail,
And the way he looked at me,
He made me feel he was all ready to
Eat me. And any girl enjoys that.
So when this boy turned up, wearing machinery,
On a really dangerous horse, to be honest
I didn’t much fancy him. I mean,
What was he like underneath the hardware?
He might have acne, blackheads or even
Bad breath for all I could tell, but the dragon–
Well, you could see all his equipment
At a glance. Still, what could I do?
The dragon got himself beaten by the boy,
And a girl’s got to think of her future.
III
I have diplomas in Dragon
Management and Virgin Reclamation.
My horse is the latest model, with
Automatic transmission and built-in
Obsolescence. My spear is custom-built,
And my prototype armour
Still on the secret list. You can’t
Do better than me at the moment.
I’m qualified and equipped to the
Eyebrow. So why be difficult?
Don’t you want to be killed and/or rescued
In the most contemporary way? Don’t
You want to carry out the roles
That sociology and myth have designed for you?
Don’t you realize that, by being choosy,
You are endangering job prospects
In the spear- and horse-building industries?
What, in any case, does it matter what
You want? You’re in my way
Sucked it up? Hope you enjoyed this master piece. The author, U. A. Fanthorpe, shows a wonderful way of combining poetry and art smoothly. We’re loving it, eventhough he uses enjambment and hardly no rhyme. So, if you have know more examples about such art and poem combination fun, please feel free to leave us your (re)comment.
