Read Rita Dove's poem "Sonnet in Primary Colors," then
study Frida Kahlo's painting Self-Portrait with Monkey and
Parrot
Which statements best describe differences in the style of
the two works?
O
This is for the woman with one black wing
perched over her eyes: lovely Frida, erect
among parrots, in the stern petticoats of the peasant,
who painted herself a present-
wildflowers entwining the plaster corset
her spine resides in that flaming pillar-
this priestess in the romance of mirrors.
The painting pays attention to details of Kahlo's
physical appearance, while the poem does not.
The poem portrays the painter as serious, while the
painting does not
The poem reveals details that explain Kahlo's facial
expressions, while the painting does not.
The painting uses imagery that tells of Kahlo's
connection to nature, while the poem does not.
O
Each night she lay down in pain and rose
to the celluloid butterflies of her Beloved Dead,
Lenin and Marx and Stalin arrayed at the footstead.
And rose to her easel, the hundred dogs panting
like children along the graveled walks of the garden,
Diego's
love a skull in the circular window
of the thumbprint searing her immutable brow.