The Portrait by Kunitz
The Portrait by Kunitz
“The Portrait” by Kunitz is a very depressing poem, filled with metaphors and symbolism, showing all the emotions a mother has to face since her husband committed suicide while she was pregnant. How she resolved her problem, and how it still comes to haunt her, even after the grave with a living reminder of their love and how it was abandoned.
The poem talks about how the protagonist’s father did suicide before the protagonist’s birth, and left a huge feeling of hate and grief to the protagonist’s mother. The father did suicide in the park, leaving shame and embarrassment to the mother, and a baby to take care of as a widow. “My mother never forgave my father/ for killing himself, / especially at such an awkward time/ and in a public park, / that spring/ when I was waiting to be born.” The mother couldn’t forgive the love of her life for abandoning her with a child to remind her of him. After time and mixed feelings of embarrassment, anger, and grief, she decided to try to forget her husband. “She locked his name/ in her deepest cabinet/ and would not let him out, / though I could hear him thumping.” Reading this the first time I thought “that her deepest cabinet” was a metaphor for her heart and she’s trying not to let him affect her. But as I continue reading the next line I believe that the cabinet also referred to the attic or a canvas. “When I came down from the attic/ with the pastel portrait in my hand/ of a long-lipped stranger/ with a brave moustache/ and deep brown level eyes,” Taking the new quote and the title into consideration I realized that the mother was probably a painter and painted the man she loved so dearly into a portrait. The quote shows that she painted him with a brave face and deep eyes showing the qualities that she loved about him most and when she was having mixed feelings, she cleared them by picturing the man she loved unrequitedly unto a blank canvas with all her heart. “She ripped it into shreds/ without a single word/ and slapped me hard./ In my sixty-fourth year/ I can feel my cheek /still burning.” The last quote of the poem shows that she could never fully eliminate the father from her life. The protagonist is a living reminder of the father, and also his curiosity brought