Derek Mahon’s poem “Girls on the Bridge” has a strong relationship with the painting which inspired it. I found the poem to deliver the same tone and theme as the painting, and in fact, expose those aspects of the painting more blatantly than if I were to look at Munch’s work independently. Both artists create an eerily still, ominous mood. Mahon sets this tone bluntly in the second half of the poem. He describes the scene with gloomy descriptions of “long shadows” and “dark waters.” The poet uses solemn metaphors to describe the girls: “Grave daughters/Of time”, and “Fair sister of the evening star.” Finally he declares their doomed fate with the lines “A day will dawn/When the bad dreams/You hardly know will scatter/The punctual increment of your lives.” Munch creates the same mood, but in a more subtle manner. The unnerving stillness is manifested in the clear reflection of the house in the stagnant water, as well as the lack of active life. The artist creates an ominous tone with the setting sun and the road curving off the page, leading the viewer to wonder what lies at the end of the road. Mahon answers this question in the final two lines of his poem: “A mile from where you chatter,/Somebody screams…” The allusion to Munch’s “The Scream” is a connection that I would not have myself, though now I will never view this painting without imagining the iconic, screaming man, just out of view.
