Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: John Ashbery
- First Published: 1975
- Type of Work: Meditation
- Genres: Poetry
- Subjects: Self-discovery
The Poem
“Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror” is a long poem in free verse, its 552 lines divided into six verse paragraphs of unequal length. The title refers to a 1524 painting by the Italian artist Francesco Mazzola, also known as Il Parmigianino. “Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror” makes the poet’s thoughts about Parmigianino’s painting the focus for a different kind of self-portrait, a self-portrait in words.
Although a poet may use the first person as the voice of a persona, a character whose outlook and experience are quite different from the poet’s, in...
[The entire page is 2092 words long]
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