Impression du Matin, Oscar Wilde

Résumé du document

It is not exaggerated to say that the Irish author Oscar Wilde turned the english literary landscape upside-down. Considered as a major player in the english cultural resurgence, he succeeded in leaving his mark both through the strength of his poetry and through his will to shock in order to make society evolve.

Extraits

[...] ») to portray London with as much accuracy as an impressionist painter. There is also a reference, line to Wilde's friend, the impressionist painter Whistler : « blue and gold » (blue and gold – Old Battersea Bridge) -Description of a vast scene of London (very open, not personal), it is a panoramic view, a panoramic/aerial view given by an omniscient- heterodiegetic poet/impersonal voice in the 2 first stanzas -Impression of calm in the moments before the dawn 'the yellow fog ' l.5 /The night is melting away=we leave the visions of our dreams to enter into reality in the 2 last stanzas -Lexical field of colors = natural elements ''blue and gold' l colors of the Thames. [...]

[...] Impression du Matin It is not exaggerated to say that the Irish author Oscar Wilde turned the english literary landscape upside-down. Considered as a major player in the english cultural resurgence, he succeeded in leaving his mark both through the strength of his poetry and through his will to shock in order to make society evolve. The four-stanza poem entitled « Impression du Matin » belongs to the collection « Poems » published in 1881. Although these poems embody the beginning of his literary career, we'll see with Impression du Matin that they already convey the high sensitiveness but also the anger and the sadness of the poet. [...]

[...] There is something a lot more powerful in Impression du Matin, it is Wilde's skill to encapsulate in a very short poem all the leading themes which will mark his great career. Sensitiviness, but also the « spleen » of being a « poète maudit », and above all the will to be an artist, a real one, that is to say someone who has to feel completely free. He belongs to this generation of « poètes maudits » whose role was, like Baudelaire wrote, to enlighten the reader : « Ô vous soyez témoins que j'ai fait mon devoir, Comme un parfait chimiste et comme une âme sainte, Car j'ai de chaque chose extrait la quintessence Tu m'as donné ta boue et j'en ai fait de l'or » (Charles Baudelaire, « Ébauche d'un épilogue pour la deuxième édition des Fleurs du Mal »,1861). [...]

[...] This is the reason why this poem seems ageless to me, or atemporal. I chose this poem because Wilde denounces what the Victorian society did not want to see (hence the use of the adjective « wan », which is close to the notion of transparence, and is purposefully used to describe the prostitute's hair). I think that the poet's will to denounce or express things, even if it leads him to be jailed (like it was the case for Wilde later because of his homosexuality), is the proof that Art is essential. [...]

[...] The main question underlying the analysis of the poem is : how does this poem represent a painting of London with words ? I – The first part will be devoted to the lecture of a painting. II – Afterwards, I'll analyse the backdrop of the painting as a social commentary on society * I – 1 : The beauty of the city. a. Impressionist painting. From the very beginning, we understand, with its title, that the theme of the poem is closely in keeping with the famous pictorial movement called « Impressionism ». [...]