About the Piece
The inspiration for this poem came from a piece in the Manchester Art Gallery, so much so that the titles of both the poem and the painting are the same. The visit was to provide inspiration, I wanted to create a character from those seen within the paintings, allowing me to explore my own ideas and create my own narrative with the painting as a source. I am by no means an art critic so when viewing the painting by John Pettie, I first took notice that the musician was playing to an empty room and, presumably, with no sheet music; the story of Polyphemus came to mind. A cyclops most notorious for his encounter with Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey, Polyphemus was deceived and blinded by Odysseus who went by the name “Nobody”. From there I sought to combine the story with the image I had from the art gallery and this ekphrasis poem, of sorts, was the outcome.