In using the poem and painting together, I feel the painting did a great deal more for me to understand the poem than vise versa. The painting is considered the greatest of van Gogh’s work and one of the great masterpieces of the post impressionism period where the use of color is more important than line. (“Vincent van Gogh””, 2010). Became more important than line it has a certain reality to it. The stars seem to swirl over a quiet town at night which is quiet, peaceful, and yet somehow deserted. I gained a better insight into the passages in the poem that I found difficult to grasp. For example, in the poem I found it difficult to relate to the line “Even the moon bulges in its orange irons to push children, like a god, from its eye.” hard to grasp.
Where the poem aids the most in understanding or grasping of the melancholy and isolated and in truth insignificant compared to the night sky above. A clear night with stars is truly a magnificent sight that people in urban areas diminishes the beauty of a truly night sky. In that in our modern world the city and its skyline are more significant than the sky.
The poem is not without elements in evoking elements in the painting. To me, the most significant line which adds meaning to the painting is “The town does not exist except where one black-haired tree slips up like a drowned woman into the hot sky.” The poem then has the ability to see more imagery than one would grasp if viewing the painting alone. The poem has the subtle way of making us see that the town is not peaceful, there is a kind of anguish there, but as mentioned above, merely insignificant in relationship the vastness and beauty of the heavens. (“Anne Sexton (1928-1974)”, 2010″).
References
- Poetry Foundation. (2010). Anne Sexton (1928-1974). Available from http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=6163.
- Wikipedia. (2010). “Vincent van Gogh”. Available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_van_Gogh.
