“Luncheon on the Grass”
1993
Carl Phillips*
They’re a curious lot, Manet’s scandalous
lunch partners. The two men, lost
in cant and full dress, their legs sprawled
subway-style, as men’s legs invariably are, seem
remarkably unruffled, all but oblivious to their nude
female companion. Her nudity is puzzling and
correct; clothes for her are surely only needed
to shrug a shoulder out of. She herself appears
baldly there-for-the-ride; her eyes, moving out
toward the viewer, are wide with the most banal,
detached surprise, as if to say, “where’s
the real party?”
Now, in a comparable state of outdoor
undress, I’m beginning to have a fair idea
of what’s going on in that scene. Watching
you, in clothes, remove one boot to work your
finger toward an itch in your athletic sock,
I look for any similarities between art
and our afternoon here on abandoned
property. The bather in the painting’s
background, presumably there for a certain
balance of composition, is for us an ungainly,
rusted green dumpster, rising from overgrown
weeds that provide a contrast only remotely
pastoral.* We are two to Manet's main group
of three, but the hum of the odd car or truck
on the highway below us offers a transient third.
Like the nude, I don’t seem especially hungry,
partly because it’s difficult eating naked when
everyone else is clothed, partly because
you didn’t remember I hate chicken salad.
The beer you opened for me sits untouched,
going flat in the sun. I stroke the wet bottle
fitfully, to remind myself just how far
we’ve come or more probably have always been
from the shape of romance. My dear,
this is not art, we’re not anywhere close
to Arcadia.*
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*Phillips is homosexual, something which may clarify who he’s addressing in the poem.
*pastoral = relating to an idyllic, rural, country life
*Arcadia = an ancient region in Greece, traditionally associated in art and literature with the simple,
pastoral life, a Golden Age of unfailing romantic love.
Déjeuner sur l’Herbe (Luncheon in the Grass)
Edouard Manet
Oil on canvase, 6’9” x 8’10” (Musée d’Orsay, Paris.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:%C3%89douard_Manet__Le_D%C3%A9jeuner_sur_l%27herbe.jpg
1863