The poem "Not My Best Side," is the poetry work written by U.A Fanthorpe. The poem talks about the painting of1870, by Paolo Uccello. In poetry work, particular poem relates real world the occurrence of the contemporary message which is actually within the society. This can be understood better by considering the "Not my Best Side" which is one interesting poem by UA Fanthorpe. The poem concerns the characters and traditions based on the legend of St George inclusive of the knight and Dragon, (Collins, P.88).
The poem "Not My Best Side" is a poetical explanation that concerns Paulo Uccello‘s painting of Dragon and also St George. The characters in this poem have been considered to be stereotypical characters and thus the poet is trying to pose a challenge based on their tradition. As far as the characters in Uccello's painting of St George as well as Dragon are concerned, A. U Fanthorpe succeeds in changing the conventional images of these characters. In this poem, the characters have been manipulated in the context of the modernity parodies. (Collins, P.88).
The poet is concerned with the traditionally based stereotypes as well as the view of the legends. The poet shows how a dragon breathing fire has been portrayed by Uccello. The Dragon has been referred to as beasty and ridiculous. In this poem, the dragon has been considered to be tamed by a teenager boy. The poet tends to contrast the poem in the view of the stereotype. In this way, the readers of this poem are convinced that the Dragon is just less innocent than other characters in the poem. As I read firs stance the and specifically in the first sentence of the poem "Not My Best Side" I am actually confronted fashion related to a dress of conscientious victim. (Collins, P.88).
The poet seems to assume the view of the characters which they depicted in the painting and the mythological slay of a Dragon. This issue has been considered by the poet as just a myth but it has multiples twists and thus it turns to be a theme that poet decides to take it to a distinct level. The poet takes the readers back to 14th century and views the painting of Dragon in block style. The poet shows how the image prototype of all the three characters has been stripped by Funthorpe and replaced with a parody style. The poet makes show the monologue which is a poetic device. As evident in this poem, the poet shows that each character had specific monologue which described how their thoughts were potential. In this poem, the issue of slaying has not been represented on the Uccello's Canvas as expected by people.
The poet in the "Not My Best Side" has used variety of poetic devices, brainstorming, and narrative of writing a narrative as well as the symbolism. The poet has also shown the role of each character in the poem and the themes associated with characters in the poet work. The poet has used a lot of rhetorical question. There is the use of rhetorical questions inline six and seven first stanza, for instance, the poet says, "what after all the two feet, to a monster? Still, in the same stanza, he continuous with such rhetorical question to line ten and she ask, "A horse with a deformed neck and square hoofs? These questions are rhetorical due to the facts that they do not need any answers. (Collins, P.88).
Through the poem, the poet has used several rhetorical questions. By considering knights who seem to be boasting about his equipment, horse, and armor, he feels to be unbeatable and rhetorically ask dragon and maiden if they want to be rescued or killed. A lot of rhetorical question in this poem is matching with satire with a posed stereotype that makes the readers have questions about the roles that are set by the society to everyone. The poet has used and it seems to be a satire based on the vanity. The vanity in this poem has not been shown through maiden who is a female character but the poet has decided to show it in a male character who is Dragon. Dragon values himself so much by treating himself as if he is a modernity celeb and he goes to the extent of apologizing for the bad publicity that he made by the creation of bathos. As a matter of fact, Dragon cared less on the publicity and in the popularly based culture, he remains to be the antagonist and thus he brings about the symbolism in the poem. The poet has chosen Dragon to symbolize the evil in the human society. It means that the society can use all sort of stereotypes to create scapegoats as it thinks less about individualism. Dragon in this poem goes to the extent of talking about the death. He seems to be less hated and thus the impacts the poem by preventing it from losing an element of comedy. Irony as a stylistic device has been used in the poem. In this poem three levels of irony are evident. (Collins, P.88).
The first irony is shown where Maiden wants to stay with dragon and this has been attributed to the qualities associated with human beings. The second level of irony is the poem shows innuendo that surrounds Dragon and this shows the aspect of bathos. The third level that shows some aspect of irony is a situation in this poem where even if Dragon is very ugly he did not like Maiden back. Maiden in this poem buy genders roles and calls who is supposed to rescuer her (rescuer) a "boy and this connects to flashily unshaven. Maiden wants her rescuer to be stereotypical masculine and this symbolizes unintelligent of women in the society. However, this women character in the poem has been used to show not sarcasm and crudeness. This character has represented women as vulgar, shallow minded and unintelligent. This poem has multiple aspects of irony. For example, in the poem, Fan Thorpe mentions a girl in the poem. For example, although the dragon and also a girl seem to be less in eliciting a kind of love, they have raised most responsiveness. The irony has pervaded within the poem as the poet tries support her poetry to remain an underdog or the losers. U.A shows a lot of sympathy in the hospital to the patient because at one time she was working in the hospital and she showed a lot of compassion the losers, (Benton, P.56).
The title of the poem itself "Not My Best Side" is an ironical title because this irony can be realized by considering Dragon's statement "Not My Best Side I am afraid" referring to physical appearance and thus the statement as put by Dragon denotes to all the character's egos. It is ironical for the knight in the poem to ask both Dragon and Maiden if they don't wish to take the role of sociology as well as myths the knight had designed for them. Dragon wished to the seriously considered while on the other side, Maiden was not able to come to a decision or a stand to decide if she wanted a rescuer or not since she likes Dragon. This is an irony in that because maiden knew very well that dragon is ugly and thus she never liked him. It is ironical that in this poem the characters are in a traditional sense of their names but ironically there is no character that shows the best side. It is ironical for Maiden who has been brought up to the proneness, (Benton, P.56).
First of all women character can be expected to be a princess but queen and thus to be realistic this not possible. This is a social problem that can be related to the modern human society that affects everyone. The line in the poem "a girl is got me thinks of her future" gives a perspective of feminism. It is not clear if Maiden is to be laughed at for finding herself this way or is she supposed to laugh she fails to live according to the societal expectation. The poem has lefts has wondered what the society should expect of the princess, pure princes or female idol of the modern society. The poet has used the man who is the rescuer to have a voice in the society. The poet uses man symbolically and man has been considered to represent the patriarchy. In the poem, the man has been perceived to have a little care for anybody else apart from himself and this is evident where three is the of first-person singular pronoun at the start of the stanza. The man's horse turned to be a machine instead of it being a social being meaning that has entirely lacked a sense of having a feeling. The poet has used superiority of male gender in this poem. The line "virgin reclamation" gives an allusion that man alone is able to save a woman and get her back to her natural value and this point out the female objectification in the society. In the poem the other two characters are out of the narrative, "So why be different" because this is broken the fourth wall. In the line, "don't you think to realize that by being choosy you are endangering aspect of the job in the spear and horse building industry,?" makes us compare feminists in the modern society giving a reflection on how society is being ruined by women,(Benton, P.56).
The issue of brainstorming in the poem is evident through the discussion of the three characters. Although the discussion and questions asked by the knight to both dragon and maid seem to be rhetorical, their ideas have some sense of coming with the solution by reasoning together and thus this is considered to be brainstorming. As evident in stanza two women have been faced with the modern stereotype. The poet argues on the basis of women who are being typically stereotyped in the modern society and in this context maiden has to be taken as an example. However, this argument is constructing in that the idea of modern day's women who are stereotyped clashes with the modest ideas inclusive of virginal princess that brings about the creation of bathos through legend's subversion. (Collins, P.88).
The women's voice in this poem has not been considered by Fanthorpe as intelligent. Even though maiden who represent women in this poem seems to be humorous she has lacked the politeness. Now it is clear that the poet has used humor through a woman character by the name, "Maiden." The undermine legends including the social norms have been sexualized and wants to live together with Dragon instead going with the rescuer. The poet shows how man is enjoying happiness with he plays rather than women because man is most powerful in the society. Man is highly favored by the society, (Kosten, P.9)
Conclusion
The poem shows how Dragon and women have been objectified. The role of man is what makes him more powerful without he is not powerful by himself. The poem makes readers think of a situation if the man had lost his position and role of his masculine. The poet shows that in case man loses masculine role as well is his position he will have nothing in the society. Maiden has been described to be crazy, superficial, delusional and very untraditional. Knight on the other side has the traits of arrogance and helpful as he assists in building industries for both spear and horse, (Collins, P.88).