La Lodge and Entr’acte

I think that the poem entr’acte describes the painting very well. It brings across the feelings of the two people in it in a very good and sensitive way.

Firstly the title of the poem -‘entr’acte’ makes the poem sound elegant and impressive, or even sophisticated. The title means in between acts which describes the painting very well because she is just sitting there and he has his eyes on things completely away from the stage. Entr’acte also sounds a bit like ‘attract’ so maybe that has something to do with it.

At the start of the poem it says ‘the cuff links whispers to the glove, such elegance and all for love’ I think in These lines the man speaking and he is saying to himself how elegant he is in his suit, (maybe he is being vain) and he how has done it all for love, maybe the love of the woman sitting in front of him or maybe the women he is looking at through his binoculars.

Then in the second stanza ‘the glove confesses to the glass, oh how slowly five acts pass.’ I think that it is the woman speaking about herself and how slowly five acts pass. Maybe the five acts pass slowly because she is not interested in the performance and is bored or maybe it is because she is waiting for the end so she can get away and do something else.

In the first line of the third stanza, ‘the glass is lifted to the eye’ I think this maybe the poet speaking, doing a running commentary of what is going on. On the second line of the stanza,’ Show me a tear I cannot dry’ I think this is the glass speaking about how the woman might be crying inside. She might be crying in the inside because the man is horrible to her or maybe because she just does not want to be there. Its like she’s crying inside but is holding herself together so she doesn’t show it.

In the first line of the forth stanza ‘The eye shows nothing to the eye’ I think this means that if you look at someone you cant judge them by what they look like because you cant see what they are like inside. In the second line ‘such elegance and all for art’ I think It could be the man talking and saying that she was there displayed in the front of the box just for show. To say to the other people there that yes he could have a beautiful woman, or she could be there to make other woman jealous. Maybe the line means something completely different and the poet is saying ‘such elegance’- because they are all dressed up in beautiful clothes, and ‘all for art’- because In the end the people in the picture were probably there just to pose for the artist to paint them.

In the painting it has the woman at the front of the picture- is this just so the man can show her off or is it because he is being a gentleman and letting her sit in front so she can see better. He is sitting at the back his could because if he looks up at other woman in the audience she won’t be able to see. She is also wearing flowers by her face and breast as if to draw attention to these features. Her face is fixed, and her eyes especially make her look sad inside as if she is trying to put on a show, to hide her emotions in public. Her lips are bright red maybe for love, anger, passion or lust. Her dress is black and white stripes like a prisoners clothes, maybe she’s trapped by the man behind her from freedom.

Overall I think that the man behind her is using her to show of to the woman he is maybe looking at in the audience. He has dressed her and himself up in very exquisite and elegant clothes just for the show and to make him look wealthy.

I think she is sad and upset that she is trapped as a model for him and is bored by the whole performance; she not very interested in it and probably wants to be somewhere else.