Appreciation of Literature and Film

Venus of Willendorf by Unknown

Each stipple inutile for others touch,

To the hands of stone journeyed the water,

Predetermined to man, ne’er for more,

To give spawn, as they call youth, but as years

Bear, paleness tholes, wise fruits ferment to wine,

Sentient of the intolerable load,

As the bird grasps below, the chicks leap.

Startling the eye, held in high repute,

The beauty in Her each gouge and indent,

To limit her sinful, yet is she more?

Lord Justice, what are we to worship her?

Only in passing or in eternity?

As she still stands, still held, are we the man

Who takes her meaning withdrawn from her hand?

Venus of Willendorf was one of the first sculptures to be carved in about 24,000 B.C.E. It’s very simple, it’s of a woman’s body and it has basic features and the most intricate part is of what may either be hair or a headpiece on the woman’s head. The reason I chose to write about her is because of her symbolism. It can’t be pinpointed exactly, but looking at other art pieces and taking history into consideration, her symbolism is of fertility. Fertile women tended to be worshiped, but are still held in the regard of being there for a man to use, which begs the question of if even worshiped women are free. I chose to break this poem into two stanzas of different perspectives. The first is of the woman carving herself and the second is the viewer over time. The reason I did this was to create more of an understanding of the meaning; what it could mean to her and what it may mean to us. Although we don’t have a clear answer, we can assume her view if she was the artist. It is important for us to understand her perspective and appreciate the progress to where society views gender roles today.

By Zane Hull

My dark coat envelops me in a soft hug, protecting me from the cold of the outside; the snow falls softly onto the ground, drifting through the sky in some unspoken, secret rhythm, each drift a sway in an unknown dance routine. A single snowflake lands on my nose; though it melts quickly, it still leaves a long-lasting impression, the tip of my nose now wet and cold. As a shiver runs down my spine and I pull my coat closer to my body, desperate to savor the warmth it provides, I wonder briefly if I have ever left such an impression on anyone.

“The Magpie,” by Claude Monet, 1868-1869

I decided to write more about how this poem made me feel, rather than what it depicted. The way that the solitary magpie in the middle of the painting leaves such an impression on the reader is not unlike the way that a snowflake leaves an impression on you before melting away. It is brief, but noticeable. There also may be some unintentional wordplay at hand, as the way that Monet used color for shadows in this painting ended up revolutionizing the Impressionist movement at the time. I really wanted to try and capture the beauty of nature that Monet easily depicts in this piece as well; gentle words like savor, sway, softly, and drifting were purposeful choices, as well as the multiple commas. There are not any line breaks, as I felt it would take away from the flow of the piece, which is meant to flow naturally like a snowflake.

by Julia Deicicchi

There they sit in their matching dresses

Pink for the brunette, blue for the blonde

Their long wavy hair pulled back 

Free from all of their stresses

What a lovely day to pick some flowers

Who shall they give them to?

“In the Meadow” by Auguste Renoir

What kind are they?

I hope April doesn’t bring any showers

Tall trees line the meadow so green

The skies so blue, with few clouds in sight

Friendship and flowers fill the air

The natural ambiance brings light to the scene

The girls in the meadow, what a sunny day

Being together is such a joy

Every blonde girl needs a brunette best friend

That is very true, I must say

I found this painting online, and it caught my attention. It was simple, yet beautiful. I definitely focused more on the art, as I knew nothing about the artist, and I didn’t purposefully try and emulate a specific poet. I wrote what I saw and some of my initial thoughts after analyzing the poem. I tried to create some sort of rhyme scheme, but poetry is not my forte. I chose words that were descriptive and naturalistic to highlight the sunny and nature filled painting. I tried to be objective, stating what I saw, but I also certainly added in my own descriptive words or thoughts to add more emotion to the poem. Moreover, I wanted  to create a lighthearted and simplistic poem, because that is what I felt from looking at the painting. I love the simplicity of this painting because sometimes it is nice to not have to find a deeper meaning, rather just appreciate the talent in the artwork. 

The Cadaver Tomb of Rene de Chalone

Alone in the Church of St. Etienne

A figure stands, offers his heart to god

What god could do with it

He does not understand

You cannot cook a stone heart

You cannot eat

Without the steady beat

You cannot make art

But the scrawl of blood in the dirt

What could you see in worship

Mortality a shroud to slough 

What use does one have for a stone heart

If god took his sacrifice

Just to hold what was given

To lay down with death and be comforted

To watch one decay

To lay down in the snow with that disavowed

Part of yourself, and be afraid

Piece by piece drop your formidable armor

Expose yourself to him

We bones lying bare

Await yours

Should one look for peace in a house of god?

What use for a stone man rotting

Unobserved by the world

His shredded flesh

His heart cold

Light a candle for those who still wait

And pray in a church

And hope for an answer

I wanted this poem to encapsulate the mystery of the statue; including who the key figures are involved in this work– us, the audience, the statue, and god.  Every time I look at it, I come away with something new, so I wanted to include different ideas that would work more to create a general feeling with some context rather than a description, as well as attempting to show what one who looks upon the statue may feel or bring meaning to.  To me, there is a distinctly religious tone, with the statue’s placement in a church there is the assumption that it is god that the statue is offering his heart to, rather than simply raising the heart upwards.  The statue is modeled for the Prince of Orange, Rene de Chalon; however, despite being made in his honor and physically placed above his bones, he is represented as a decaying corpse rather than a whole.  I did not want to mention the artist, as I felt the work was more important and worth focusing on as the subject.  I did not necessarily model my poem after any specific poet or other work, but I wanted to make it freeform with no particular rhyme scheme, as I felt that rhyming would not fit the tone.  I did; however, ensure that the first stanzas would be of equal length (six lines each), until the end.  I wanted each stanza to be somewhat self-contained, focusing on a different aspect of how one could view the work.  The break of the pattern at the end was meant to give more emphasis to the conclusion that would bring both the religious tonalities and the audience’s view into focus.

Chapel of The Holy Cross 

Your grand and gloriousness stands

Effortlessly proud atop the ruby monuments

You call home. Viral in spirituality and 

Abundant in visitors who make the trek in hopes 

To soak up every last drop. You’re a spectacle and 

A vast mystery, caloused hands worked day and night 

To plant between those Earth made pedestals.

I long for a slice of your beauty and your Venus-like

Attraction, for I can’t even count the pictures that 

Loiter through rolls of camera. Capturing you at every 

Angle. The art of subdility is the root of your seduction, 

As you stand quietly, peering at the peasantry below you. 

Begging you for light 

Only your highest power could give.

I chose to write an ekphrastic poem about The Chapel of The Holy Cross in Sedona, Arizona because it is one of the most beautiful structures I have ever seen in person. I also wanted to structure my poem in a way that emulated a sonnet, with little to no stanza breaks. I feel that this style does a lot for poetry when needing to explain one particular subject in detail. Sometimes stanza breaks can feel almost story-like when read aloud, therefore, I strayed away from this style. I left more lines enjambed than not because I feel that by doing this, it helps the lines to bleed into each other and make the piece feel like one giant thought about a certain thing. When actually describing The Chapel in my poem, I focussed mainly on the effects it has had on not only me, but all the visitors that come to see The Chapel. The poem predominantly praises this gorgeous monument and I tell the story from the perspective of someone who almost envies the utmost beauty this structure exudes.

Pieta

A mother, her son who must

move a mountain for love.

a dark and dried-up body,

a withered thorny crown,

an esoteric visual of grief.

Gold plated halo, where are her

well-worn and mighty wings?

How long has she prayed? 

How raw are her knees?

Make no adjustment of His body,

let His limbs hang as He did.

Holding onto to holiness

under her fingernails, filed

down from gripping

everything she loved.

Holding Him as if he’s more than

an ugly raw-boned carpenter’s son

with an unwieldy conscious

observed by those who’ve faced

those unspeakable grievous words,

It is finished.

My main goal of this poem was to focus more on Mary than Jesus. The idea that Jesus was a son of Mary instead of just the son of God was really interesting to me. The painting felt like it was showing deep emotions about the grief of a mother who has lost her first born child. So, I wanted to focus on the more emotional side of what the painting depicted. I focused a little bit on describing some features of the painting. For example, lines 6, 11, and 19 – 23 are all direct references to the things I saw in the painting. I also chose to capitalize the pronouns used to refer to Jesus because in the Bible, the capitalization of words like “Lord” and “Father” symbolizes holiness and sets God and Jesus apart from each other. I also tried to use words that had a negative or upsetting connotation to represent the sadness that was shown in the painting. I ended it with “it is finished” because those are said to be the last words of Jesus when he was dying on the cross.

A Friendship Like No Other

My dear old friend comes to greet me once again

Sometimes distant but never far

My oldest friend

My constant companion

Once was I told with age comes loneliness

However I am never alone

Through every failure, every loss

Even the supposed happiest moments of my existence

My oldest friend has never left my side

Although in vain I have tried to outgrow my oldest friend

Never have I shaken them

They have held my hand in every stage of life

Slowly morphing me in their image

Now at the end of my existence I can hardly tell the difference

Between them and me

In the poem I wrote, I did not analyze the painting at face value or simply describe what I saw in the painting. When I looked at this painting of this man, I saw a man towards the end of his life that had been beaten and broken down by a lifetime of sadness and depression. This is what I wrote my poem about. I wrote my poem as the man in the poem speaking of his depression as a lifelong friend who has never left his side. I focused on the art more than I did the artist. However, I don’t know why Vincent van Gogh painted this work of art specifically. Perhaps maybe the old man in the painting is supposed to be van Gogh himself. I broke the lines in the poem where I did in order to continue the flow and cadence of the poem. I also made the lines short on purpose for ease of the reader. I used the word friend multiple times in this poem in reference to depression. The words friend and depression clearly convey very different meanings. However, for everyone who either has depression or knows someone that does, the use of both of them in the same vein makes sense in a way. I wanted to create a very contrasting juxtaposition with the idea of depression and friendship.