Summary
Lines 1-3:
O'Hara opens the poem with a straightforward declaration. Responding to the implied question posed by the poem's title, he explains that he isn't a painter for a very clear reason: he is a poet. However, this answer invites further elaboration, and O'Hara concedes, "I think I would rather be / a painter, but I am not." At the time, "abstract expressionist" artists like Jackson Pollock were receiving significant attention in the media, so it was inevitable that O'Hara, given his ties to the art scene, would face inquiries about why he hadn't pursued painting. The third line concludes with "Well," and the sentence continues on the next line after a stanza break.
Initially, the abrupt conclusion of the line might seem random, but leaving "Well" hanging serves a purpose. By keeping it near the sentence, "I think I would rather be / a painter, but I am not," the word "Well" reflects O'Hara's feelings about not being a painter. Here, "Well" could easily translate to "oh well," suggesting that not being a painter doesn't trouble O'Hara significantly—he certainly doesn't view being a poet as a disadvantage. Positioned at the end of this line, "Well" both comments on O'Hara's situation and sets the stage for the more detailed explanation that follows after the stanza break.
Lines 4-9:
In the following stanza, O'Hara recounts the creation of a painting by his friend, Mike Goldberg. He avoids the stereotypical image of the artist as a tormented soul laboring over his work, instead portraying the artist as a composed professional.
As Goldberg starts his painting, O'Hara visits him. By saying, "I drop in," O'Hara emphasizes the casual nature of the visit: he and Goldberg are on equal terms, and his unannounced visit is neither a disturbance nor a burden. Goldberg pauses his work to offer O'Hara a drink. With the phrase, "I drink; we drink," O'Hara begins to highlight the parallels between himself, the poet, and his friend, the painter: just as the painter enjoys a drink, so does he. This illustrates the seamless blend of art and daily life.
O'Hara then nonchalantly observes the painting and makes a simple remark: "You have SARDINES in it." By incorporating a literal word into his painting, Goldberg is, in a sense, borrowing from the poet's domain. Goldberg's response, "Yes, it needed something there," is equally straightforward and unpretentious. Their conversation lacks any self-conscious critique or guidance, suggesting that the painting is being created in the same unassuming manner.
Lines 10-16:
The word "Oh," at the beginning of the next line, doesn't express surprise from O'Hara. He understands Goldberg's intentions with his painting and is merely ending this brief exchange with his friend. O'Hara then illustrates how life continues uneventfully. He writes, "And the days go by," and when he visits Goldberg again, the artist is still working on the painting. Once more, O'Hara notes, "and the days go by." By repeating this phrase, O'Hara captures the progression of time.
On his third visit, O'Hara discovers the painting is complete. Observing that Goldberg has removed the word "SARDINES," leaving only random letters without any "meaning," O'Hara asks, "Where's SARDINES?" This time, O'Hara is genuinely surprised. Goldberg responds, "It was too much," suggesting he finalized the artwork through a process of elimination.
Lines 17-29:
With the phrase "But me?" at the start of the last stanza, O'Hara begins to explain the distinction between his poetic process and Goldberg's painting method. While Goldberg initiates his painting with the word "SARDINES" on canvas, O'Hara begins by contemplating the color orange. Just as Goldberg ventures into the poet's realm...
(This entire section contains 1050 words.)
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by using a word, O'Hara delves into the painter's domain by employing a color. Unlike Goldberg, who removes elements, O'Hara continually adds to his work. "Pretty soon," O'Hara writes, "it is a / whole page of words, not lines. / Then another page." To further illustrate the contrast between poetry and painting, O'Hara emphasizes that he is adding "words, not lines." At this point, the poem reaches a climax, highlighting a sort of conflict between poetic language and artistic lines. This also underscores the poet's challenge to convey in words what a painter can express simply with a color.
As O'Hara continues the poem, he realizes that what he wants to add diverges significantly from his initial idea: "There should be / so much more, not of orange, of / words, of how terrible orange is / and life." He allows the phrase "and life" to start a new line. This isn't a random line break. Here, O'Hara uses what Perloff describes as a "floating modifier"—"word groups that point two ways." The words "and life" connect to the idea of "how terrible orange is." They also relate to the following words, transitioning to another repetition of the phrase, "Days go by."
By repeating a particular phrase twice in the opening stanza, where the painting process is described, O'Hara subtly sets the stage for the poem's concluding insight. Here, O'Hara comes to understand that he and Goldberg share more similarities in their creative processes than differences. Like Goldberg, O'Hara requires several days to complete his work. Interestingly, once the poem is finished, O'Hara realizes it doesn't even mention "orange," his initial inspiration—just as Goldberg's completed painting lacks the word "SARDINES," which was his original starting point.
In the lines "It is even in / prose, I am a real poet," O'Hara, after briefly wrestling with the perceived limitations of language, reaffirms the strength of words and the essence of poetry. When he states that his work is "in prose," he does not mean it isn't poetry—it certainly is, but it takes on a prose form. Moreover, O'Hara suggests that his identity as a poet is inescapable.
Ultimately, although O'Hara never includes the word "orange" in his poem, he still chooses to title it "ORANGES." Similarly, when he views Goldberg's painting in a gallery, he notices Goldberg has done the same, naming his painting "SARDINES" despite its lack of sardine imagery. This demonstrates that O'Hara, even without directly using "orange," relies on the painterly idea of color; conversely, Goldberg, though his painting contains no words, still uses the poetic element of language to engage with his art. Thus, despite their different methods, the poet and the painter are equals within the broader world of the arts.
