“Not Rightly Re(a)d” (After John Singer Sargent)
Not Rightly Re(a)d
(Bouncing off of crimson walls painted by John Singer Sargent, 1884)
Her remark was admittedly
oblique, but, she thought, daringly
witty: that her dream was ‘to wake up
each day to something black
and white
and re(a)d all over.’
She had even winked. (Amazing.)
But a woman’s wish to be
au courant, smudged with the
badge of newsprint, inked (as it
were), was not
considered, and so, and
thus, and accordingly–
her walls
were papered instead
with the soft crimson
of the boudoir, the scarlet
that lined
her laquered jewelbox–an embered
burn that her cheeks
reflected over each morning’s coffee,
while she pondered, silently,
how little re(a)d was
her very own heart.
******************************************
Yes, the draft poem above is very anachronistic! I don’t think that particular riddle was known in the 19th century. However, I’m still thinking about the past from yesterday’s post about the French Olympics 1900!
This one is posted for The Mag, a writing blog hosted by Tess Kincaid, in which Tess puts up a pictorial prompt each week. The prompt, a painting by John Singer Sargent, was painted in 1884, two years after England passed the Married Woman’s Act of 1882, giving married women legal rights in their own property and earnings. (Such property had previously gone to their husbands.) (The initial married women’s property law in England was passed in 1870, but was a much weaker more limited act.) In the U.S., these laws were passed on a state by state basis beginning in the mid-19th century.
Explore posts in the same categories: poetry, UncategorizedTags: black and white and re(a)d all over, bouncing off red walls, John Singer Sargent poem, manicddaily, oh please give me the vote!, oh where's my newspaper?, Poem about married women's property rights act 1882 (sort of)
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ManicDDaily 
August 5, 2012 at 2:50 pm
What an excellent take on this prompt – full o underlying meaning. 🙂
August 5, 2012 at 3:21 pm
Clever take on the prompt ~ Enjoyed the contrast of the dream, versus the re(a)d of her own heart ~
And I find your tags amusing ~
August 5, 2012 at 3:28 pm
Thanks. The dream to read the newspaper! But I’m not sure that comes across to someone of a younger generation. This was a very common riddle when I was little. K.
August 5, 2012 at 4:36 pm
I agree, I only know from my reading of nasty feminist history (and deliciously inaccurate historical fiction) that women of that era had their reading material censored, in fact, all methods of ingestion and expression of ideas were beyond their control, as well as their incomes, ‘careers’ etc, etc. Your poem has a dream feel to it, however, that seems to say, even so circumscribed, women as Woman survived, to live to fight another day, and most elegantly.
August 5, 2012 at 6:07 pm
i Didn’t know the history of this work of art , Thank you for sharing that. with your cleverly written work.
August 5, 2012 at 6:13 pm
ugh…talk about missed re(a)dings…smiles…careful what you ask for if you are not too specific….hedge’s comment as well shed other light on this as well, intended or otherwise….nicely spun k…
August 5, 2012 at 8:37 pm
Thanks -I intended the limitations – I’m always shocked to think about how very recent women’s relative empowerment is. The idea that women have had the vote for less than 100 years in both U.S. and England–that my grandmothers lived in a time when they were not allowed to vote, for example. is pretty shocking, and all these married women’s property acts – the idea that women could not own their own property, not all that long ago. I actually think some of the first acts in the U.S. were passed in the South in order to allow women to own slaves, since without the law they were not allowed to own anything — Mississippi was one of the first, for example. Crazy. k.
August 5, 2012 at 7:10 pm
A curious case of inside out, Manic, i like !
August 5, 2012 at 10:29 pm
“But a woman’s wish to be
au courant, smudged with the
badge of newsprint, inked (as it
were), was not
considered, and so, and
thus, and accordingly–
her walls
were papered instead”
How telling this is! Her heart unread as well! So get up and fight, sugar! I know, I know. She must have been part of the middle class and above who had not yet had to work or fought to work and was voiceless and complicit in her own—don’t get me started!
I LOVE your poem, its humor and its seriousness.
August 5, 2012 at 11:47 pm
killer closure!! wonderful, Karen!!
August 6, 2012 at 7:19 am
Thanks, Mohana. k.
August 6, 2012 at 6:23 am
Beatuifully done – and instructive too. Great response to the prompt.
August 6, 2012 at 7:08 am
Thanks, Dave. k.
August 6, 2012 at 5:35 pm
Loved the play on the newspaper joke…I recognized it right away…does that mean I am no longer young? Sigh.
August 6, 2012 at 7:53 pm
No, no. I’m just guessing that if someone doesn’t get it, it may be because it’s an old joke! k.
August 6, 2012 at 6:36 pm
Clever–really enjoyed reading this one! Nicely done!
August 6, 2012 at 9:05 pm
I got the joke, too. And I AM old. But thankfully, not so old I had to go through that phase of women’s rights (or lack of them).
August 7, 2012 at 2:42 am
Clever and fascinating!
August 7, 2012 at 12:27 pm
Nicely done to work in the old riddle. The extra information was a good to be reminded of. I’d forgotten about that act and it’s interesting that it was passed so near the date of the painting’s execution.
August 7, 2012 at 11:29 pm
I find your take on this to be very interesting, and refreshing, even if I didn’t catch the riddle without a little help from our friends!
August 9, 2012 at 4:02 pm
But, of course, I am old and I got the joke rightaway! Even though rules were passed the mentality was slow to die. The bank required a ‘man’s’ approval before I was allowed to purchase a home. And this was West Coast in the 50’s. That would be 19. 🙂 And there’s every indication that many of those USA southern states are trying to take rights back from women even as we speak. BUT – your poem is terrific!! And I re(a)d it several times.
August 12, 2012 at 3:41 am
I find this strangely cryptic, slightly haunting, Manic, thank tou