It’s as if I don’t know her
The red dress
The dapper man
The diner
The reflection of her face upon her mug
There’s mystery in her eyes
There’s misery in his mind
She feels no pain
She has no fears.
Feeling the frost of her gaze
Twirling her hands
Legs crossed under the table
It’s like she doesn’t know me
My hat
My drink
My stare
I notice it all
She looks down.
I know them
Yet they don’t recall me
I look down
They look up
It’s as if we are not here.
We are together
We are here
We don’t know each other.
Nighthawks by Edward Hopper is my favorite painting. For my poem I decided to create characters for the people shown in the painting and give them each a narrative, all of them but the employee. The first three stanzas represent the man sitting alone. The woman in the red dress was a previous lover of his and he thinks she does not recognize him and is jealous that she’s with another man. The next set of stanzas represent the man sitting next to the woman. He doesn’t feel a connection with her, he thinks she’s too involved with herself to care about him. The second to last stanza is from her perspective, she knows just who these men are, but she does not care enough to make an effort she is so self absorbed. After each period , it marks the point of view of a different character. The spacing of the lines represents the distance and coldness from the woman.
I have always loved the painting that you chose Nighthawks. In highschool I also wrote a poem reflection of the painting. With this I find it so interesting that the poem that I wrote is very similar to the own that you wrote. I think that this is because of the simple yet has a certain depth that can be obviously acknowledged. I really enjoyed short and sweet wording of your lines that allow the reader to sort of understand the picture your portraying in a timely manner.
I think it’s interesting that you do not make the speaker in the poem very apparent. I’m not sure if this was intentional, but each male figure in the painting has a hat and a drink. The only exception potentially being the server at the diner, but his drink could be the coffee that he is serving. Also your use of the word ‘they’ also reinforces this idea because it is nonspecific and could be singular or plural. Overall, I really enjoyed reading it!
I really liked how you changed speakers throughout the poem because it made me think more about the different perspectives going on in that painting. It put me more into the mind of the different people in a way I wasn’t able to see before. I also really liked the way you characterized the man and woman so differently in personality but still somehow connected them in the end. Overall I really enjoyed your poem.
This is such a great poem and a beautiful painting to go with it. This painting to me has always been a favorite. I just never knew the name or the painter! I love how you gave everyone displayed in the painting their own thoughts. We get to experience what happens in the painting along with the characters represented in it.
The writing and perspective change in this poem is great. I could follow it at my first read without having to read the explanation, but once I did, I saw how truly great your poem is. The way you are able to tell different parts of the story from the perspectives of each character is very well done, and quite impressive. I also like the detail you added about how the spacing in the lines also refers to the painting, and how it represents the distance and coldness from the woman. Very well done!