“The Portrait” is a poem flavored with strong contrasts. One aspect of the poem emphasizes the other – much like the Chinese hot and sour soup. The woman of the poem is the hot and all the other women are the sour. The sour in this poem gets emphasized in this poem to the point where it almost masks the hotness. But because there is so much sour, the hot is that much sharper and rich. The speaker starts out describing the woman’s personality by telling us how she acts towards herself and with strangers. We are told that, regardless of the situation, she always speaks with her own voice.
It shows us that the woman is honest about herself with nothing to hide and nothing to be ashamed about; in other words – confident. This is a complete contrast to how other women are described as. They are said to be dishonest and manipulative because they use “borrowed” or “false” voices when speaking. This deception may have been understandable and somewhat acceptable until the last line of the quatrain, “Even on sons and daughters. ” If those other women keep up pretenses in the privacy of their own home and towards their children, then they are indeed dishonest and ashamed of whom they are.
In the second quatrain the speaker describes the woman as walking “invisibly at noon. ” The way the line was worded is a very subtle hint of just how beautiful she is. In order to be invisible during noon she must shine as brightly as the sun during the hottest, brightest and most dangerous time of the day. The other women just gleam “phosphorescent. ” I love how the word phosphorescent is used to describe the appearance of the other women. This single word tells us that the women have no radiance during the day time and are only noticeable during the night where they prowl “Down every lampless alley. Here we have another contrast in the second quatrain on where “She” walks along the high road and where the “Other women” walk. A lampless alley gives us an image of a dark narrow path strewn with filth; a place where prostitutes ply their trade while the “high road” suggest a moral superiority or even elevating the woman to Goddess-like stature where her feet never have to touch the ground. In the third quatrain “She” is shown to have determination in love because she is “pledged to love through all disaster. She can have this attitude because she is both “wild” and “innocent”; attributes that are envied by the “other women”. In the face of such a woman, a woman who possesses everything the other women do not have, the other women resort to insults and slander to sully her image. The word used to slander her image is “witch”. This word implies the use of spells or charms to attract men. The other women probably use this word to make themselves feel better about having to become someone they aren’t in order to attract some attention. The other word used is “drab”, a much more insulting word than “witch”.
Drab is a word used to the woman a whore or a dirty woman, someone unworthy of the attention and love she receives. Another way to look at this is that the other women want think of her as a prostitute as a reason why she gets so much attention while they do not. This word usage is pretty ironic when you look back to the second quatrain and the speaker implies the other women are prostitutes based on where they gleam. In the fourth quatrain we see a glimpse of the woman’s emotion. It’s as if she cannot stop moving and is desperately seeking a man – a man as different from other men as she is as different from other women.
Those who are unique are not satisfied with ordinary people; they seek those who are as unique as themselves. “The Portrait” is a poem that describes a woman more so through the descriptions of other women than through descriptions of herself. Every quality given to the woman is enhanced by the qualities given to other women. This poem is aptly titled because such a woman is so rare that there is an urgent need to make an eternal record as proof that such women do exist. All we can do is hope we are worthy enough to accompany them on their journey.
