Ekphrasis Poetry on "Self Portrait with a wine bottle." Week 37

Before reading the poem on Edvard Munch's "Self Portrait with a wine bottle," go to the link to view the painting. Observe the surroundings. Focus on the ambience portrayed through the subtle details within this early 20th century Symbolist work. As common within any symbolist painting, note the somber panorama depicted through the use of color imagery. Scroll down and read the poem upon completion and determine whom the poem refers to.

-Daniel Chesmore

http://www.art-reproductions.net/images/Artists/Edvard-Munch/Self-portrait-with-bottle-of-wine.jpg

"Self Portrait of a Wine Bottle"

by Daniel Chesmore

Women have used me, most men too.

Now I sit alone, caught in my own phase.

Every time I open up, a part of me dies.

What is so rancid about me?

For so long have I been touched, groped, wanted, mistreated...

Never loved.

Yet upon my misfortune, my history outlives any other.

To be pestered by men,

fucked my women,

To be bottled up in agony, pressured for God's sake.

My juices squeezed,

and my flesh wrung out.

Manipulation, drunkenness, murder, buffoonery,

I've seen them all, too much in fact.

Here I sit alone, in this cafe, my last stop.

The tables empty, all but one.

I stand alone, and always will.

I shall expire tomorrow, no one will care.

Replace me with another to fix your own sorrows.

No one will care...

One more empty bottle,

your problems to bare.

Order me up, pass me around,

go ahead, more to share.

____________________________________________________

Can you guess to whom the poem refers to?

El vino