On Alma Tadema’s Coign of Vantage and Other Poetry by Mary Jane Myers The Society January 24, 2023 Art, Beauty, Ekphrastic, Humor, Poetry 12 Comments . . On Alma Tadema’s Coign of Vantage Flora peeks over the marble parapet, a dizzying perch above the azure Aegean. The Roman fleet is returning. ‘Tis the season to flirt, to catch a lover in her net. Julia and Livia stand close, her bosom friends. Tomorrow they’ll break their sisterly pact— each flaunting girl-flesh in the public baths, vying to beguile wealthy centurions. Lying prone, his back turned, a lion of bronze, neck adorned with forsythia. His tail flicks. If asked his opinion, he’d lazily yawn, contented to bask in the warm sunlight, surveying human follies from this sheer height. Bright sun, blue sea. The galvanic, dazzling ships! . . The Education of Wisdom Athena at sixteen: a taciturn girl, inattentive in class, instead she’s obsessed with War and Peace, concealed under her desk. Hers is not Edith Hamilton’s myth. The whirl of college, her doctorate; she flails about, non-tenure-track, staring down career doom. A Burmese cat and a booklined bedroom soothe her. Drinking wine alone, her escape route, she morphs into a drunk, “recovers,” but then? AA’s fatuous platitudes cannot nourish an idea-besotted mind. So, what to do? Scribble sonnets! urges Euterpe, her friend. Welcome to our bardic tribe. We cherish Tolstoy’s wisdom: the rare, the beautiful, the true! . . Mary Jane Myers resides in Springfield, Illinois. She is a retired JD/CPA tax specialist. Her debut short story collection Curious Affairs was published by Paul Dry Books in 2018. NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets. The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary. ***Read Our Comments Policy Here*** 12 Responses Paul Buchheit January 24, 2023 Mary Jane: Very descriptive, expressive, image-filled poems. You didn’t just “scribble a sonnet,” you wrote a beauty! Reply Mary Jane Myers January 30, 2023 Thank you Paul. It’s such a delight to have my poems appreciated! Reply Jeremiah Johnson January 24, 2023 Love the Tadema sonnet! The way you animate that lion – obviously one couldn’t talk about this picture without addressing it (like the elephant in the room) – but I don’t know if it would have entered my mind to give it a consciousness. Great way to contrast the licentious frivolity with a sterner perspective on the world. Do you know the site? “ekphrastic.net” They would eat this up! Reply Mary Jane Myers January 30, 2023 Thank you Jeremiah. That lion is irresistible–more fun even than the girls! Sincerely Mary Jane Reply James A. Tweedie January 24, 2023 Delightful wit that tops Jane Austin even at her best. How you can be terse, florid and seriously amusing at the same time is an absolute wonder and all while chasing tenure, PhDs and moonbeams! Quite an accomplishment. Enjoy the wine, dear Athena—but don’t sell AA too short. You may yet have need of it! As for you, Mary Jane, I want more and more after that! Reply MARY JANE MYERS January 30, 2023 Dear James– To be compared to Jane Austen is a compliment I never could have imagined. Thank you! I was a denizen of Al-Anon for a few years. They are the folks who sit around in a basement room quietly sobbing while “their” alcoholics are as usual in party mode, making a lot of noise. Somehow alcoholics always figure out a way to have their cakes and eat them too. (Just kidding–AA is a remarkable organization). Most sincerely Mary Jane Reply Paul Freeman January 24, 2023 Two enticing and well-written sonnets. Thanks for the reads, MJ. Reply MARY JANE MYERS January 30, 2023 Thank you Paul. It is such a blessing to have appreciative readers! Sincerely Mary Jane Reply C.B. Anderson January 25, 2023 These top-drawer poems fairly defy my ability to explain why I like them so much. They are vivid, yet subtle, almost the ideal of what it means to say something well — in vino veritas. Reply MARY JANE MYERS January 30, 2023 Dear C.B. I am genuinely humbled by your praise. Thank you. Perhaps we “classical poets” could create an expression: in poetria veritas.(I’ve forgotten how to decline Latin nouns! in any event, “poetria” meaning “poetry” is medieval Latin!) Most sincerely Mary Jane Reply Monika Cooper April 12, 2023 Even though the scene in your sonnet is the total opposite of the scene in his, I have to ask if you had Philip Larkin’s ekphrasis “The Card-Players” in mind when you wrote your “Coign of Vantage” poem. The form, rhythms, especially the ending, reminded me of something and that was it. Anyway, I think it’s a pity that none of your poems have appeared here since January! Reply MARY JANE MYERS April 19, 2023 Monika Yes, I was using “The Card-Players” as a model. My tutor Kate Potts assigned me to write an ekphrastic sonnet based on Larkin. I wrote this sonnet, and a companion sonnet in the same format for another “classical” Alma Tadema painting Alcaeus and Sappho. I titled the pair ” Two Visions of Alma-Tadema. The final line of the paired poem (titled Lesbos Idyll) is: Sun, song and sea! This becalmed, wounding place! Thank you for your kind words. I am truly gratified by the sophistication of this website. If I can get my act together, I’ll submit additional poems. Reply Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Paul Buchheit January 24, 2023 Mary Jane: Very descriptive, expressive, image-filled poems. You didn’t just “scribble a sonnet,” you wrote a beauty! Reply
Mary Jane Myers January 30, 2023 Thank you Paul. It’s such a delight to have my poems appreciated! Reply
Jeremiah Johnson January 24, 2023 Love the Tadema sonnet! The way you animate that lion – obviously one couldn’t talk about this picture without addressing it (like the elephant in the room) – but I don’t know if it would have entered my mind to give it a consciousness. Great way to contrast the licentious frivolity with a sterner perspective on the world. Do you know the site? “ekphrastic.net” They would eat this up! Reply
Mary Jane Myers January 30, 2023 Thank you Jeremiah. That lion is irresistible–more fun even than the girls! Sincerely Mary Jane Reply
James A. Tweedie January 24, 2023 Delightful wit that tops Jane Austin even at her best. How you can be terse, florid and seriously amusing at the same time is an absolute wonder and all while chasing tenure, PhDs and moonbeams! Quite an accomplishment. Enjoy the wine, dear Athena—but don’t sell AA too short. You may yet have need of it! As for you, Mary Jane, I want more and more after that! Reply
MARY JANE MYERS January 30, 2023 Dear James– To be compared to Jane Austen is a compliment I never could have imagined. Thank you! I was a denizen of Al-Anon for a few years. They are the folks who sit around in a basement room quietly sobbing while “their” alcoholics are as usual in party mode, making a lot of noise. Somehow alcoholics always figure out a way to have their cakes and eat them too. (Just kidding–AA is a remarkable organization). Most sincerely Mary Jane Reply
MARY JANE MYERS January 30, 2023 Thank you Paul. It is such a blessing to have appreciative readers! Sincerely Mary Jane Reply
C.B. Anderson January 25, 2023 These top-drawer poems fairly defy my ability to explain why I like them so much. They are vivid, yet subtle, almost the ideal of what it means to say something well — in vino veritas. Reply
MARY JANE MYERS January 30, 2023 Dear C.B. I am genuinely humbled by your praise. Thank you. Perhaps we “classical poets” could create an expression: in poetria veritas.(I’ve forgotten how to decline Latin nouns! in any event, “poetria” meaning “poetry” is medieval Latin!) Most sincerely Mary Jane Reply
Monika Cooper April 12, 2023 Even though the scene in your sonnet is the total opposite of the scene in his, I have to ask if you had Philip Larkin’s ekphrasis “The Card-Players” in mind when you wrote your “Coign of Vantage” poem. The form, rhythms, especially the ending, reminded me of something and that was it. Anyway, I think it’s a pity that none of your poems have appeared here since January! Reply
MARY JANE MYERS April 19, 2023 Monika Yes, I was using “The Card-Players” as a model. My tutor Kate Potts assigned me to write an ekphrastic sonnet based on Larkin. I wrote this sonnet, and a companion sonnet in the same format for another “classical” Alma Tadema painting Alcaeus and Sappho. I titled the pair ” Two Visions of Alma-Tadema. The final line of the paired poem (titled Lesbos Idyll) is: Sun, song and sea! This becalmed, wounding place! Thank you for your kind words. I am truly gratified by the sophistication of this website. If I can get my act together, I’ll submit additional poems. Reply
