Not My Best Side (UA Fanthorpe) - Poetry Analysis

Not my Best Side  - UA Fanthorpe

I

Not my best side, I'm afraid.

The artist didn't give me a chance to

Pose properly, and as you can see,

Poor chap, he had this obsession with

Triangles, so he left off two of my

Feet. I didn't comment at the time

(What, after all, are two feet

To a monster?) but afterwards

I was sorry for the bad publicity.

Why, I said to myself, should my conqueror

Be so ostentatiously beardless, and ride

A horse with a deformed neck and square hoofs?

Why should my victim be so

Unattractive as to be inedible,

And why should she have me literally

On a string? I don't mind dying

Ritually, since I always rise again,

But I should have liked a little more blood

To show they were taking me seriously.

II

It's hard for a girl to be sure if

She wants to be rescued. I mean, I quite

Took to the dragon. It's nice to be

Liked, if you know what I mean. He was

So nicely physical, with his claws

And lovely green skin, and that sexy tail,

And the way he looked at me,

He made me feel he was all ready to

Eat me. And any girl enjoys that.

So when this boy turned up, wearing machinery,

On a really dangerous horse, to be honest

I didn't much fancy him. I mean,

What was he like underneath the hardware?

He might have acne, blackheads or even

Bad breath for all I could tell, but the dragon--

Well, you could see all his equipment

At a glance. Still, what could I do?

The dragon got himself beaten by the boy,

And a girl's got to think of her future.

III

I have diplomas in Dragon

Management and Virgin Reclamation.

My horse is the latest model, with

Automatic transmission and built-in

Obsolescence. My spear is custom-built,

And my prototype armour

Still on the secret list. You can't

Do better than me at the moment.

I'm qualified and equipped to the

Eyebrow. So why be difficult?

Don't you want to be killed and/or rescued

In the most contemporary way? Don't

You want to carry out the roles

That sociology and myth have designed for you?

Don't you realize that, by being choosy,

You are endangering job prospects

In the spear- and horse-building industries?

What, in any case, does it matter what

You want? You're in my way.

Analysis

Context

-Written by U.A Fanthorpe, and published in

-Based on an 1870 painting by Paolo Uccelo. The painter obsessively used triangles throughout the piece, indicating that he was a perfectionist rather than a realist, and perhaps had OCD. He created spear lines with the storm clouds, giving the idea that it was ordained by God.

-The original myth is from a popular collection of Saint’s lives, written in the 13th Century called ‘The Golden Legend’.

-The character’s from the poem mutiny against their painter – their creator.

-The contrast of the context behind the painting and the themes in the poem creates bathos, and shows that in a way these characters are still alive, wittily pointed out by the dragon – ‘I don’t mind dying ritually, since I always rise again’. These characters, as part of an English aetiological myth, still impact people today in the roles they have created within society. It shows that at its core, society has not changed between the time the painting was created and the time the poem was written. -Enjambment throughout the poem makes it conversational.

-Stanza voices: Stanza 1 – the dragon, stanza 2 – the woman/princess, stanza 3 – the man/rescuer

Stanza 1: The dragon.

-The voice of the dragon is intelligent, though somewhat vain – to use the colloquial term, ‘camp’.

-Intelligence – sophisticated vocabulary.

-The dragon actually has a voice, which is humorous and ridiculous in itself.

-Is mocking towards the knight, the woman, and the painter and through that ridicules a central myth to our society.

-Condescending towards the artist – ‘poor chap’. Jokes about the obsession with triangles, and the fact he is missing 2 feet.

-Buys into common stereotypes – mocks the man being ‘ostentatiously beardless’ (not manly), the woman being ‘unattractive as to be inedible’ (lacking in beauty), and questions why he himself is not a fearsome dragon (‘why should she have me literally on a string?’). He continues to mock his own divergence from the dragon stereotype by saying ‘what, after all, are two feet to a monster?’.

-Rhetorical questions matched with the satirically posed stereotypes make the reader question the roles that society sets out for us.

-Satire on vanity: it is odd that the vanity is not shown in the woman’s character, but rather in the dragon’s.

-He treats himself as a modern day celebrity – ‘I was sorry for the bad publicity’ – creating bathos. However, the fact is that The dragon shouldn’t care about publicity – in popular culture, he is the antagonist, a renowned figure symbolising evil. This shows that society can blindly use stereotypes to create scapegoats, without thinking about individuality.

-The dragon talks about death light-heartedly, preventing the poem from losing its comedic element. However, since it is not common to talk about the subject so easily – ‘I don’t mind dying/Ritually, since I always rise again’ – it retains the same impact.

-But, the dragon goes from talking about the woman in ‘And why should she have me literally/On a string? I don’t mind dying/ritually, since I always rise again’ straight to death, reflecting the societal view that the two are adjoined. In the painting, she is offering the string to the man, who is saving her from temptation.

-‘But I should have liked a little more blood/to show they were taking me seriously’ – the dragon has been easily overpowered, belittling him.

Stanza 2, Woman:

-Typical stereotyped modern day woman, though this clashes with the idea of a modest, virginal princess, creating bathos through the subversion of the legend.

-The voice of the woman is neither intelligent nor ladylike, though she is humorous in her lack of propriety.

-A typical reader will not like the character of the woman, as she is crass – ‘What was he like underneath the hardware?’ – though this should make them uncomfortable as they realise that they would otherwise be forcing her to fit into a specified gender role.

-Subverts the legend and social norms through being over sexualised, and wanting to stay with the dragon, rather than go with the rescuer.

-Though it is ironic and light hearted, the woman is self-obsessed. She is particularly shallow, even more so than the dragon, focussing on physical appearance with materialistic ideals – ‘lovely green skin’ and ‘sexy tail’.

-There are 3 levels of irony in this

a. She wants to stay with the dragon, which is given humanoid qualities

b. Innuendo surrounding the dragon (bathos)

c. The dragon doesn’t like her back

-She buys into typical gender roles too, calling her rescuer ‘boy’ – links to ‘ostentatiously bearded’, wanting the rescuer to have stereotypical masculinity.

-Unintelligent – most of the humour is crude or sarcasm – ‘On a really dangerous horse’

-As a reader, we have a dislike for the woman, as she is out of place (she is vulgar, unintelligent, and shallow). Though she is brought up to be a princess, the reality is that this is not possible – this is an issue that affects us even today. Line ‘A girl’s got to think of her future’ links to a feminist perspective.

-It is unclear as to whether we laugh at her for being this way, or do we laugh because she has not lived up to our expectations – do we want the princess to be entirely pure or a modern day female idol?

Voice 3: The Man/Rescuer

-The man can basically be thought of as a representation of the patriarchy.

-The stanza begins in the first person singular pronoun, showing that the man has little care for anyone outside of himself.

-His horse becomes a machine, rather than being a conscious being. Adds to the sense that the man is entirely unfeeling.

-Immediately a sense of male superiority – ‘Virgin reclamation’ alludes to the idea that he alone can save the woman, and bring her back to her original value – objectification of women.

-‘So why be difficult?’ – the other 2 characters do not fit into his narrative. This breaks the 4th wall.

-Bathos with the juxtaposition of ‘diplomas’ to the classic tale and painting.

-‘Don’t you realise that, by being choosy,/you are endangering job prospects/in the spear- and horse-building industries?’ – this clearly says that by going against the grain, the woman is ruining society. Common argument feminists face today.

-The man is happy with his role, while nobody else is. This is because: he has the most power; society favours men; the woman and the dragon are objectified; his mere role makes him powerful, while he is not powerful himself – if he loses his position and masculine role, he has nothing.