Frank Bidart’s “Self-Portrait, 1969”
Chalbert * Track #17 On CHalbertB2
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Frank Bidart’s “Self-Portrait, 1969” by Chalbert
Performed by
ChalbertAbout
Speaker:The speaker is the son of an unstable mother.
Occasion: The son is looking into the mirror and sees his mother in himself, making him unhappy.
Audience: The audience is most likely everyday people that he knows or someone who he is confessing his problems to.
Purpose: The purpose of the poem...
Frank Bidart’s “Self-Portrait, 1969” Annotated
He's still young—; thirty, but looks younger—
or does he? . . . In the eyes and cheeks, tonight,
turning in the mirror, he saw his mother,—
puffy; angry; bewildered . . . Many nights
now, when he stares there, he gets angry:—
something unfulfilled there, something dead
to what he once thought he surely could be—
Now, just the glamour of habits . . .
Once, instead,
he thought insight would remake him, he'd reach
—what? The thrill, the exhilaration
unravelling disaster, that seemed to teach
necessary knowledge . . . became just jargon.
Sick of being decent, he craves another
crash. What reaches him except disaster?