“A poem is nothing but a picture painted black and white.” This anonymous quote perfectly explains ekphrastic poetry. Like a caption following a picture, a poem about a painting contains additional information relating to the contents of the painting. The information portrayed in the poem may not be the painters intended objective in painting what and how they painted. It is simply an opinionative description of what the poet sees. Paulo Uccello’s aint George and the Dragon inspired poet U.
A. Fanthrope to respond to the painting by writing the poem “Not my Best Side.” This poem isn’t just an objective, verbal description of Saint George and the Dragon; Fanthrope is taking it as an opportunity to challenge old, stereotypical positions on mythical times, by showing the stereotypes expressing their opinions. We are reading Fanthrope’s poem about how she reads the painting. Fanthrope takes the liberty of explaining the poem through the eyes and mind of the three characters: the dragon, the maiden, and the knight.
These dramatic monologues are an effective poetic device for Fanthrope to express ideas that she doesn’t necessarily want to be associated as her own. By speaking through persona, the expression of her feelings is not accepted as hers, but as the character’s feelings. In “Not my best Side,” Fanthrope proceeds to write about challenging old stereotypes by creating new ones. This is expressed through the monologues of her characters. The poem begins with the challenging of the stereotypical dragon.
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In order to properly describe how the dragon was feeling, Fanthrope needed to personify the dragon. This was done to allow it to express emotions, feeling, and pass judgment; otherwise, a mythical dragon would not be seen as having feelings, having emotions, or being capable of passing judgment. This personification is obvious throughout the entire first stanza as the dragon proceeds to explain his feelings about the painting. Keeping in mind a personified dragon, the poem starts out with, “Not my best side, I’m afraid. / The artist didn’t give me a chance to/ Pose properly” (1-3).
We are immediately informed of the dragon’s vain personality. Although dragons do not exist, a stereotypical dragon has no reason to be vain. He continues to complain of the artist that stuck him with these atrocious qualities, “he left off two of my feet” (5).
Why would such an ugly killing machine care what anyone thought about him? Fanthrope suggests that the dragon in the picture has reason to be vain. The dragon complains of his conqueror being “beardless, and ride/ a horse with a deformed neck and square hoofs” (11-12).
The dragon even knows that if a knight is to conquer a dragon like himself, it should be one of perfect quality. Unsatisfied with the present knight, the dragon proceeds to complain about the victim Uccello stuck him with as well. The dragon complains of her looks as, “Unattractive as to be inedible” (14).
Needing not to say anything more about his maiden, the stanza ends with “I will always rise again, / But I should have liked a little more blood/ To show they were taking me seriously” (17-20).
This leaves the reader to ponder what Fanthrope was saying about stereotypes on dragons. She concludes that the common resurrection is still in tact, but, surprisingly catching us off guard, she makes the somewhat intelligent dragon wish for a more grotesque image of itself.
As the monologues switch, the opinions switch as well. In the second stanza, monologues switch from the dragon’s to the maiden’s. It’s typical of a maiden in distress to want to be rescued, however, Fanthrope tells us differently. Fanthrope makes the maiden express disinterest in being rescued, “It’s hard for a girl to be sure if/ She wants to be rescued. I mean, I quite/ took to the dragon.” (20-23).
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This makes the reader say to themselves, “What?” What kind of a maiden would not want to be rescued from a dragon but instead, want to stay with the very thing that would likely eat her? This is Fanthrope’s way of saying that the maiden is not acting stereotypical; in fact, the maiden is acting almost inappropriate towards a beast of the dragon’s nature.
It’s almost as if she is sexually attracted to the dragon. This is shown in three different sentences containing sexually suggestive statements. The first she is describing how the dragon makes her feel, “He made me feel like he was all ready to/ Eat me. And any girl enjoys that” (27-28).
Secondly, she’s describing his physical features as, “So nicely physical, with his claws/ And lovely green skin, and that sexy tail.” Finally, in response to the knight’s armor, she makes the comment about the dragon, “Well, you could see all his equipment/ At a glance” (35-36).
Fanthrope obviously makes the maiden act the complete opposite of how a damsel should act.
The maiden’s opinion of the knight is different than what we would expect as well. The knight is regarded as a “boy” who, “might have acne, blackheads, or even/ Bad breathe for all I could tell” (33-34).
It’s safe to assume the dragon may have worse breathe than the knight, but that doesn’t stop the maiden from criticizing her savior. She ends her stanza by succumbing to her stereotypical role for the sole reason that the dragon was slain.
Although she expressed interest in the dragon, she concludes, “The dragon got himself beaten by the boy, / And a girl’s got to think about her future” (37-38) The knight turns out to be quite a comical character. Fanthrope makes the knight look as if he was a boy fulfilling a man’s role. It’s obvious that this is a very inexperienced knight. This is shown by the excessive bragging like, “I have diplomas in Dragon/ Management and Virgin Reclamation” (39-40).
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The knight feels like he must persuade the characters that he is qualified to slay the dragon. He continues to boast how qualified he is, “You can’t/ Do better than me at the moment.
/ I’m qualified and equipped to the/ Eyebrow” (45-48).
An efficient method Fanthrope uses while speaking through the knight persona is the contradiction in words. Finally after wasting his entire stanza bragging about how qualified he is, the knight states, “You are endangering job prospects/ In the spear- and horse-building industries” (54-55).
From the gathered opinions about the knight, it’s obvious that he is bringing this endangerment on himself, not the dragon.
The ironic part about him being a knight is that he thinks he’s the best, while both the maiden and the dragon believe he shouldn’t be a knight at all. Again, ironically, he states, “Don’t/ You want to carry out the roles/ That sociology and myth have designed for you?” (50-52).
This is ironic for the fact that these roles also call for a knight of prestigious manner, which is obviously not the knight in the picture. Fanthrope takes the characters in the painting and puts a twist on each one. The twist is challenging the stereotypical roles of each character and assigning them new roles. First, Fanthrope changed the maiden’s old, stereotypical role as a helpless victim needing rescued, to an individual taking sexual liking to a beast of a dragon’s character.
Second, the dragon’s label of possessing no feelings and only being concerned with survival has been challenged to a more sophisticated nature. Finally, the opinion of a gallant knight on a mission of rescue has been transformed to an opinion of a boy demonstrating conceded, immaturity. Fanthrope is successful in adding to the painting through the creation of different character behaviors than stereotypes have suggested about mythical times.
