The Latin Epigraph

S’io credesse che mia risposta fosse
A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma percioche giammai di questo fondo
Non torno vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero,
Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo.

The epigraph is basically something along the lines of "We're in hell. Neither of us are leaving, so I will tell you everything because you can't escape and tell everyone." Although this incredibly in-depth synopsis suggests that there are two people in this "scene", I made it such that the speaker is alone. The epigraph sets the table for the poem, but does not describe the speaker's situation, so I decided for this design (and the rest), to make him alone. Here, he is sitting across from an empty chair at a set table, highlighting his solitude. The table being set shows an expectation for a companion, which he lacks. The background is an image of the nine circles of hell (Dante's Inferno, from which the epigraph is sourced). The speaker is a glowing white mass so that he/she/they are not given a concrete identity, allowing the viewer (you, probably) to impart whatever identity they wish upon it.

The Etherized Patient

Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question ...

To be completely honest, I struggled with making this "something." I just ended up putting the speaker against the London skyline. He's on the bridge. Barely visible, his place in the design highlights his lesser status, something he aludes to in his references to Michelangelo. I decided to make the sky as vast as possible to, again, emphasize the speaker's insignificance. Against the sky, there's an overlay of the painting of the first etherized patient. I intended for it to 1) make the completely blue sky a little more interesting 2) acknowledge the simile.

The Yellow Fog

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.

The fog's rubbing, licking, and curling up suggests some feline nature. Again, the speaker (in the house) is juxtaposed with something greater than him. The dominance of yellow in the scene gives a sense of boundlessness to the cat, emphasizing its all encompassing nature. Cat big. Speaker small. Speaker isolated in his smallness.

The Coffee Spoons

For I have known them all already, known them all:
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?

With two spoons, one would expect each one to be filled, but only one is. The asymmetry punctuates the speaker's solitude. The speaker sits in of those spoons. The background is an hourglass, full of sand (not visible), signifying the speaker's time slipping away as the poem continues.

The Fool

No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—
Almost, at times, the Fool.

The passage alludes to Hamlet and more specifically Polonius through descriptions such as "an attendant lord", "full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse", and "almost ridiculous." I decided to recreate the scene from Hamlet in which Hamlet kills Polonius. Polonius dies an unceremonious death; the speaker is a pretty unceremonious guy, neurotic and insecure. Both also have an affinity for talking a lot. Standing over the speaker/Polonius, in stark contrast, is Hamlet. Not really. More of a representation of what the speaker isn't. His own indecision and worrying will kill him.

The Mermaids

I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think that they will sing to me.

I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.