THE POEM SERIES: THE FIFTH VERSE.

CITY OF BALLOONS
Amidst the white walls,
Dusted in the peachy rose
of scented hope,
Floats a city of balloons
Perched upon a little girl’s head.

COMMENTARYSIDE NOTE: AUTHOUR’S COMMENTThis is a short one and I love it. This is the first poem I wrote last year based on the image attached above. As can be seen, it is a beautiful illustration of a young girl and it filled me with a sense of quiet wonder. I have always loved balloons as a kid and whenever one went up into the sky, I would crank my neck all the way and even chased it on some occasions just to watch it float away in bitter sweet moments. I often wondered if they stayed up deep into the clouds forever and I was happy to see them fly away deep into the blue sky with that belief. Now as an adult, I think I will still feel the same way when I see a balloon in the sky and have that innocent wonderlust all over again. So I guess this nostalgia resonated with me when I saw the image and I wanted to immortalize those feelings in one of my writings.

The title is obvious from the image and it reminded me of the sentiment of behind the Pixar movie, Up!, although I have only watched reviews of the movie. Originally I was going for something dark but I couldn’t bear to tarnish the beautiful picture with such tone.

The overall essence of the picture reminds me of my wonder-filled childhood which is really heart-warming. And this is coming from someone who doesn’t like pink. Dusty pink however reminds me of a flush or a smiling blush, so I focused on that colour scheme to set the mood of the poem. I tried to infuse the element of hope as a new element to original image but the use of the white walls was me being a little cynical (I was going to include a dark element either way!).

The creative process behind this poem is also interesting. What had happened was I wrote a stanza and wanted to elaborate more on the image but couldn’t figure out what next to write. On a later review, I found that I really like the original draft and left it like that.

So here is my analysis on the poem.

THE CENTRAL MESSAGEThe central message of the poem is silent wonder and hope. The poem is based on a little girl with balloons attached to her, floating over her head as she looks on in awe. She is the central character of the poem, more like a fairy-tale princess like Rapunzel. The narrator, on the other hand, is likened to a story teller of this poem. He tells the tale of the young girl who focuses on the whimsy and fantasy in her curiosity against the reality that she lives in.

PROGRESSIVE THEMES IN THE IMAGE/POEMThe central theme of this poem is silent wonder and hope. This is explained with the use of colours (or illusions to colours), imagery and context. As the actual picture is present for the narrative, the poem serves as an exploration, giving life to the image by construction a base for literary explanation.

The title is centred on the balloons which although isn’t the focal point, serves as an ambition, as a goal for the main character. It represents a sort of freedom for her, a presence of security and the bases of her character definition.

The girl, on the other hand, is the focal part of the image as it is her reactions that carry the weight of the poem. She is characterized as young with an air of curiosity around her. The colour scheme surrounding her suggest a subtle charm and beauty which is carried over to the poem.

It should also be noted that along with the theme of curiosity lies the underline subtly of ‘realism’ or reality. As the balloons float into the air and she watches them, she is ‘grounded’ in her surroundings (which is the white background). There is a sense of gap and mild detachment that could be noted in the distance of the balloons to her light of sight as well as a distinct colour separation (as can be seen in the disparity between the harshness of the white and the whimsy of the pink).

According to my interpretation, the illustration depicts the wonder of someone who cannot be chained by circumstances. While the white limits her, she still stares off undaunted in peachy wonder and scented hope which show the viewers the strength of her will as well as subtle beauty of being in her own world (as we can see what she sees).

Like I said previously, I felt a connection to the image, and tried to capture its essence in a poem form. I will explain the poem momentarily but I wanted to briefly discuss the position the position of the narrator.

The narrator takes the position of a storyteller, telling the tale of a young girl undaunted in her faith, full of wonder and beauty. Even the poem (which is the story he tells to the readers) mirrors the form and structure of a fairy-tale, which for a 5 verse poem, elevates the narrative of the image. So it is a unique position as he holds the reins in this world and is the second source of information, apart from the original illustration.

Now that the interpretation of the image (for the purposes of this poem) has been explained, I will now explore the intricate details embedded in the short poem that carries along the narrative of the illustration as well as the expansion of its lore (the central theme).

IN-DEPTH ANALYSISThere is only one stanza in the poem that explores the narrative of the image. As previously explored in the theme analysis section, the central conflict centres on the main character, the feature of balloons, colour disparity between white and pink as well as the inclusion of concepts like hope.

01-Amidst the white walls: a reference to a hospital room
02-Dusted in the peachy rose: an allegory to whimsy and beauty
03-of scented hope: an implied intent of the pink gradient (line 02)
04-Floats a city of balloons: a reference to the illustration
05-Perched upon a little girl’s head: another reference to the illustration

The setting I chose is a young girl in an hospital room surrounded by balloons. The reason is the white walls in the poem is inspired by hospitals and the term amidst the white walls gives the illusion that she is a patient there.

The next line 02, dusted in peachy rose is a reference to the original image which is meant to serve as a symbol of whimsy and beauty, which can be found on the main character and the balloons.

Line 03 introduces the concept of hope as an additional element in the illustration. It is represented as soft gradient of the pink colour (whimsy) in the background of the image, as there is a gradient of the colour which starts from the bottom (white) to the top (pink). This gives the illusion that hope is scented/dusted… in …peachy rose (colour). It also serves as a run along from line 02 to line 4, bringing together the whimsy in the tone (characterized by the gradient of colours in the background) to the intent of the balloons in the next line.

Lines 04 and 05 are direct references to the original image. It depicts the visual representation of the girl and the balloons in such a way that the visuals of the illustration can be understood without even seeing the original image.

Hence, this poem serves to explore the illustration in a literary form, transferring its essence or central composition to a poem format as closely as possible. It has achieved quite a few feats of representing the visual image, analysing its central composition and examining the lore (central theme), even expanding on concepts like hope.

For a such a short poem, I am happy to work on it as it is different from my other ones because its creation was inspired by an image.

FINAL THOUGHTS.Wow! A whole week since my last post…this is quite awkward. I really meant to get this out soonest but I was struggling with some things, still haven’t gotten it down but I am working on it. I hope this formula isn’t boring and you guys enjoy my content. I will be getting around to working on my literature series in due time. Anyways, on to the conclusion of this piece.

This is a fairy-tale poem and 5 lines with an original illustration to support. What is there not to love? I did some sorcery and made it more in-depth, analysing my own interpretation of the image and why/how I created a poem based on the essence of the image.
So check it out. You might like it. Still, thank you very much for reading and see you soon in the next one.

Much love and Respect
Dammie

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