Oscar Wilde wrote this poem in 1889 as his symbol of interest in the Decadent and Aesthetic movement. It is presented to the world as a poem, but that was not his intention. It is instead a descriptive work that allows the reader to view a picture. Even the title has reference to an art collection by James Whistler with the color of yellow focusing on the Aesthetic era. Wilde was also fascinated with the contradictory artistic creeds of John Ruskin and Walter Pater. Ruskin believed “that all good art is moral art” while Pater fancies “the love of art for art’s sake”.
As I read this poem, a vision comes to mind. I am traveling in a small boat on the Thames River towards the last leg of my journey. My destination is the England coastline. “And at my feet the pale green Thames lies like a rod of rippled jade” (831).
When the boat maneuvers, a curve in the river, a view that one could only imagine, comes to my sight. There are rays of the color yellow all around me in the early morning light. The waterfront contains a bridge that is filled with traffic of individuals conducting business with the barge owners. They are selling hay. “An omnibus across the bridge crawls like a yellow butterfly, and there, passer-by shows a little restless midge. Big barges full of yellow hay are moored against the shadowy wharf, and like a yellow silken scarf, the thick fog hangs along the quay” (831).
I also notice a Temple surrounded by elms tree with their leaves color fading flying in the wind. “The yellow leaves begin to fade and flutter from the Temple elms” (831).
The beauty of my vision has made me appreciate that all things in life must be cherished and life is a blessing.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Bianca,
ReplyDeleteSome good passages to analyze quoted in this post, but you don't take the next step of analyzing them. You tend either to followup the quotations by restating them in your own words, or simply moving on to your next point. In your research paper paper, be sure not to handle quotations in this way. I would suggest reading some of your classmates' blogs to see how they handle textual examples.
I do agree with Dr. Glance that I'd like to see more analysis of individual quotations, but I enjoyed reading your own "vision" that you got from this poem. I think it's significant that in your vision, you see the beauty of all around you, not just in one type of thing (as in, not just yellow objects, etc.). I feel like Wilde picks just yellow things in the way that Hopkins picks just dappled things: because to discuss all of Creation that bears the mark of God's beauty would be a maddeningly large task. Though Wilde only praises objects of yellow in his poem, I think (as you seem to!) that he really intends us to get a sense of the beauty of every color in the world.
ReplyDeleteWinnie,
ReplyDeleteI agree with Hannah in her views of the poem. It was hard to determine what the author wanted us readers to gather from the poem when I first read it. Then I began analyzing the color "yellow" and found out that it can represent numerous things: cheerfulness, optimisim, concentration, but more importantly-life. I feel that Wilde wanted to readers to look at this poem as though it were a painting. His colorful description of everyday objects allows us to become intimate with the details in the poem. Guess this is apart of the Aesthetic movement.