On Finally Seeing Astarte Syriaca I Am Overcome With A Longing To Text You A Meme Only You Would Laugh At — Momtaza Mehri
For my first poem of the month, I have chosen the work of poet, Momtaza Mehri, who was made Young People’s Laureate of London in 2018, and her poem On Finally Seeing Astarte Syriaca I Am Overcome With A Longing To Text You A Meme Only You Would Laugh At, published in Issue Two of Tentacular.
There are many things I love about this poem. Firstly, it is in some way inspired by the 1877 painting by Rosetti called Astarte Syriaca. In the painting, Jane Morris models for the goddess Venus, dressed in a green floaty dress and flanked by two angels, also in green and with green wings. As a fan of Pre-Raphaelite paintings, especially those of Rossetti, I was immediately drawn to the poem from the title. I also often find inspiration from visual artworks in my own poems and writings, so am always interested when someone else does it too.
The first line of the poem conjures up images of the painting. “Oily sin tinged green” is, of course, reminiscent of the green clothes Venus and the angels are dressed in. I find it intriguing that Mehri has chosen to describe the green as “sin tinged”, attributing sin to a goddess who is supposedly sinless. But this “sin tinged green” draws parallels with the relationship between Rossetti and Morris. Rossetti was obsessively in love with Jane, who was married to the artist William Morris, and so the use of “sin tinged green” lends itself to the idea of jealousy, but also hints at Rossetti and Jane’s love affair. Similarly, this idea of jealousy may also reflect an aspect of the relationship between the narrator of the poem and the one they address as “you”. This is further indicated in the lines “I don’t know what it means to stand in front of an idol / and not see my own reflection. Convincing you is half the problem” which suggests some underlying resentment or lack of admiration. Hints at the relationship of the two characters in the poem are further developed with the line “I am keening”. Who is the narrator keening for? Possibly the keening is after a breakup, which is further enhanced by the use of the word “longing” in the title, which may refer to not being able to contact the person to whom the poem is addressed.
A line I found interesting was “I end where I begin” which made me think about the relationship between the first line and the last line of the poem. In thinking this, I wondered whether “Oily sin tinged green and supple / as grace” actually refers to the narrator, or the addressee. The last line “make me regret nothing” therefore comes to mean something more powerful. If we are to say the first line refers to the narrator, we can perhaps conclude that they do not regret the aspects of their personality, both positive (“supple as grace”) and negative (“oily sin tinged green”). But ultimately, the other person in the poem has the power as the narrator needs them to “make [the narrator] regret nothing”, the narrator cannot simply do it on their own. If we think the first line describes the addressee, we may infer that the addressee needs to prove to the narrator they are worth something, despite possibly treating the narrator badly. This aspect is further illustrated with the lines “I am accustomed to men who can cross / continents but never the gulfs in their own living rooms” which seems to be saying that there are things the addressee will not do for the narrator, which theoretically should be easier than other things. The line “It is arrogant to think you are the problem. But it has to be one of us / and it isn’t me” suggests that there is a rift between them, that the addressee is the one at fault. But somehow this painting, painted by an artist of the woman he loves, remind the narrator of the addressee and causes them to want to make some kind of contact. I get the feeling that the narrator is sad to be left behind, the line “The obscene shape of your panting / on window glass” suggestive of hating the physical act of the other person leaving. The structure of the poem also lends itself to the idea of distance, as though the lines are going in opposite directions, or perhaps lines trying to cling to others as they move away.
As all good poems do, this one gave me a lot to think about. And I’m interested to know what it was about this particular painting that was so significant. The use of “finally” in the title suggests the narrator has wanted to see this painting in the flesh for a long time. What special connection does the painting have for both characters in the poem?
You can read the full poem here.
Rochelle Roberts
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