The Relationship of the Poem and Painting
Written in collaboration by Tommy Antonino, Madison Copeland, Annie Lashinsky, and Anna Adams
Vernon Scannell’s ekphrastic poem They Did Not Expect This on Walter Sickert’s Ennui adds a backstory to the lives of the couple as portrayed in the painting. To note, the painting only presents this couple in a single instant in which they were consumed with ennui, or boredom, and were not (in that moment) doing anything Much like tabloid photographers attempting to snap embarrassing photos of celebrities mid-sneeze or in their daily routines, for all we know as viewers the couple portrayed may have been extremely active and Sickert may have only chose to capture a single instant of ennui.
The poet attempts to move beyond the one moment and to give cause for the boredom. His work causes the viewer to project the idea of an unhappy marriage onto the painting by criticizing body posture and facial expression. Scannell's words can be justified in the painting but it is also possible that his words taint the viewer. Sickert may be depicting a loving couple in the middle of the day with nothing to do but once this painting is paired with the ekphrastic work, the viewer's opinion begins to be skewed.
Scannell’s poem creates a life story in which the couple, during their naive youth, were always living in uncertainty and excitement, not knowing where they would live from one day to the next, as “there was no shelter anywhere” (line 7); until the fourth quatrain in which “they found accommodation in a cold / Furnished room” (lines 13-14) and they cast away all hopes that they had for their lives and forget about them. Their relationship is nearly toxic, and their tongues are “burned” even with saying a loving name.
It is possible that the long, convoluted lines of the poem, relate to the slightly fuzzy, hazy lines in the painting. These hazy lines could be representative of their now hazy futures. “They had their hope stuffed and put on the mantlepiece/ Buy found, after a while, that they did not notice it.” (line 19) They have lost the hopes that they had for their futures and have even forgotten them. The man in the painting casts a definitive shadow, obscuring parts of the room, and his body blocks a bit of the woman’s. Perhaps the man is the dominant one in the relationship, and he more so decided that their relationship was simply not working out. This dominance seen in the painting may give the viewer something to project onto poem. Perhaps he is the cause for unhappiness.
The fifth, last quatrain is the most ekphrastic quatrain of the poem because it comments on the rote lives of the couple at the same point in their lives as depicted by the painting. It is interesting to point out, however, that Scannell’s poem is not strictly ekphrastic in the sense that it describes the image of the painting but rather attributes a story to the subjects of the painting. In this sense, this poem and painting in duo highlight the idea that, as argued by Dr. Ruth Webb, “ekphrasis is a technique, not a genre.”
Written in collaboration by Tommy Antonino, Madison Copeland, Annie Lashinsky, and Anna Adams
Vernon Scannell’s ekphrastic poem They Did Not Expect This on Walter Sickert’s Ennui adds a backstory to the lives of the couple as portrayed in the painting. To note, the painting only presents this couple in a single instant in which they were consumed with ennui, or boredom, and were not (in that moment) doing anything Much like tabloid photographers attempting to snap embarrassing photos of celebrities mid-sneeze or in their daily routines, for all we know as viewers the couple portrayed may have been extremely active and Sickert may have only chose to capture a single instant of ennui.
The poet attempts to move beyond the one moment and to give cause for the boredom. His work causes the viewer to project the idea of an unhappy marriage onto the painting by criticizing body posture and facial expression. Scannell's words can be justified in the painting but it is also possible that his words taint the viewer. Sickert may be depicting a loving couple in the middle of the day with nothing to do but once this painting is paired with the ekphrastic work, the viewer's opinion begins to be skewed.
Scannell’s poem creates a life story in which the couple, during their naive youth, were always living in uncertainty and excitement, not knowing where they would live from one day to the next, as “there was no shelter anywhere” (line 7); until the fourth quatrain in which “they found accommodation in a cold / Furnished room” (lines 13-14) and they cast away all hopes that they had for their lives and forget about them. Their relationship is nearly toxic, and their tongues are “burned” even with saying a loving name.
It is possible that the long, convoluted lines of the poem, relate to the slightly fuzzy, hazy lines in the painting. These hazy lines could be representative of their now hazy futures. “They had their hope stuffed and put on the mantlepiece/ Buy found, after a while, that they did not notice it.” (line 19) They have lost the hopes that they had for their futures and have even forgotten them. The man in the painting casts a definitive shadow, obscuring parts of the room, and his body blocks a bit of the woman’s. Perhaps the man is the dominant one in the relationship, and he more so decided that their relationship was simply not working out. This dominance seen in the painting may give the viewer something to project onto poem. Perhaps he is the cause for unhappiness.
The fifth, last quatrain is the most ekphrastic quatrain of the poem because it comments on the rote lives of the couple at the same point in their lives as depicted by the painting. It is interesting to point out, however, that Scannell’s poem is not strictly ekphrastic in the sense that it describes the image of the painting but rather attributes a story to the subjects of the painting. In this sense, this poem and painting in duo highlight the idea that, as argued by Dr. Ruth Webb, “ekphrasis is a technique, not a genre.”