MARSDEN HARTLEY'S POEM / PORTRAIT OF RYDER
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Albert Ryder--Moonlightist
(by Marsden Hartley) Moonlight severing his ancient mariner's beard and falling over the cliffs of his eyebrows his lips fearing to touch what was no longer available night streaming through his listless fingers with the texture of impassible days to come hanging like limpid moss from his prophet shoulders-- this beautiful man, suffering from the weight of majesty of dream because he had been denied substance of any other truth--dream so sumptuous--heavy with failures of death radiant with shimmer of new belief. I am speaking of Albert Ryder moonlightist as I knew him-- "I asked him to Christmas dinner," the lady said to me, who had a long time known him, "he said he would come, we waited two hours for him--the party eager to see him--he did not come." Next time she saw him--"O we were so disappointed you did not come"-- "I was there," said Ryder, "I looked through the window--saw the lovely lights--it was very beautiful." (written c. 1940; Collected Poems of Marsden Hartley p. 224) |
Marsden Hartley, Albert Pinkham Ryder (1938), Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Discussion points / questions / activities
----> How does the speaker (and the painter) feel about Ryder?
----> In this poem, there seems to be a shift in the middle of the poem, at "I am speaking of Albert Ryder moonlightist," in tone and even in point of view. Ask students if they can find this shift. Once they do, ask them if the second section adds anything to the poem, and what that would be. Is the poem better off without the second section? How does the second section relate to the first? Is this a moment of bathos (a term for when there's an abrupt shift from something serious and lofty, to regular and even silly)? Specifically, from 'the majesty of dream' and 'failures of death,' to Marsden Hartley talking in a personal tone about the story of a Christmas dinner?
----> How does the speaker (and the painter) feel about Ryder?
----> In this poem, there seems to be a shift in the middle of the poem, at "I am speaking of Albert Ryder moonlightist," in tone and even in point of view. Ask students if they can find this shift. Once they do, ask them if the second section adds anything to the poem, and what that would be. Is the poem better off without the second section? How does the second section relate to the first? Is this a moment of bathos (a term for when there's an abrupt shift from something serious and lofty, to regular and even silly)? Specifically, from 'the majesty of dream' and 'failures of death,' to Marsden Hartley talking in a personal tone about the story of a Christmas dinner?
REFERENCES
Portrait: In the public domain, accessed at http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/486010
Portrait: In the public domain, accessed at http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/486010
