Impression du Matin by Oscar Wilde... French roots in that poem...

Oscar Wilde was more famous (to me) for his oeuvre “Le portrait de Dorian Gray,” but, even though it was extremely short, “Impression du Matin” is an awesome lesson on life. The French title recalls the name of an Impressionist painting. In fact the poem is a description of London at sunrise and is based on colors and sounds. Wilde wants us to “dive ourselves” into the scene by making us feel the rising atmosphere. Blue, yellow and grey are the dominant colors. They are cold colors and they fit well to the fading of night. The magic atmosphere of blue and gold melts in grey and yellow nuances. Cold fog spreads all over the place. We feel the quiet power of silence. Suddenly an unreal sight: Saint Paul’s dome floats on the fog over the city.
This poem indeed seems like a romantic poem, using beautiful imagery to describe the Thames River. However, the simple fact that the nature being described is the Thames is a clue, a river stuck in the middle of London, a capital of business and chaos, which Wilde recognizes with the “barge with ochre-coloured hay.” (3) What message does he want to convey? Is it a critique of human evolution over such a beauty of nature like the Thames? The message Wilde is intending to transmit is unclear at this point.
In the second part of the poem sounds and motion dominate: the city is waking up: carts fill the streets, everyone starts work, as mentioned: “the streets were stirred with country wagons” (10-11). Also nature seems to wake up: a little bird sings on the wet roofs: “and a bird flew to the glistening roofs and sang.” But everything fades away when in the fore ground a lonely woman comes forward to symbolize human solitude. The fourth stanza really helped me understand the whole point of that poem. He is describing a prostitute as he writes: “the daylight kissing her wan hair, loitered beneath the gas lamps’ flare, with lips of flame and heart of tone.” (14-16) “Beneath the gas lamps’ flare” indicates a location that we often attribute to a place where prostitutes are when they “work.” Also, “lips of flame” portraits the physical cliché appearance of those “ladies of charms.” This is a confusing shift in subject matter, as at first Wilde describes a painting, but a prostitute, or any human figure, for that matter, is found in the painting. This assists the clarity of the poem, confirming the poem is indeed a commentary on society. Her description is a striking contrast to the colorful imagery of her surroundings. Her description is suddenly insipid as far as colors are concerned. No more of those colorful depictions just as if he wants his readers to observe the contrast: “But one pale woman all alone.” (13)
I looked up “wan” (14) in dictionary and found that in every definition, almost every usage, “wan” is used to describe skin, generally on the face. Because one does generally think of the face when “wan” is the adjective, the object "hair" allows for the imagery of a hair color not found in nature, almost transparent. Wilde uses this imagery effectively, conveying society’s view of prostitution as almost transparent, not seeing the poor, those who are forced to do what they would not otherwise do in order to survive. Also in the last stanza is the questionable use of “loitered” (15) as opposed to the grammatically correct “loitering,” possibly implying she is not lurking of her own accord, it is something society has forced upon her.
“Impression du Matin” is a misleading poem, sucking the reader in with a lovely description of a river, something that most of us are familiar with, and ending surprisingly with social commentary regarding prostitution, a sometimes taboo subject especially in the 19th century. I believe this adds to the success of the poem. Since the last stanza is so abrupt, it stands out, not only in the poem itself, but in some of the lasting thoughts of the readers.