In the first two stanza of the poem, the speaker is in a time when night is slowly ending. Visually peculiar expressions are continuously made; specifically, Wilde’s adjectival usage of color is not natural or realistic but rather impressionistic. For example, the poem begins likewise: “The Thames of nocturne of blue and gold/ Changed to a harmony in grey” (1-2). From the very beginning, Wilde alludes to the “Nocturnes in Blue and Gold”, a painting by Whistler, giving his readers a direct visual guide to be mindful of (1687). Even to those who do not know what the painting looks like, the colors blue and gold, connoted with richness and deepness, helps the readers envisage the dark, deep stillness of midnight. In line 2, a lighter color, grey, is immediately introduced, symbolizing how the night’s color is fading into morning. Grey is identified with harmony, creating a slightly incongruous imagery. Harmony has a musical, joyful, united, and balanced connotation, but grey has a connotation of dullness, depression, and conservativeness. Yet, the readers are able to realize that harmony stands for the balance met between the night and the morning and that grey represents the visually perceptible color of that moment. Thus, “harmony in grey” (2) sounds odd at
In the first two stanza of the poem, the speaker is in a time when night is slowly ending. Visually peculiar expressions are continuously made; specifically, Wilde’s adjectival usage of color is not natural or realistic but rather impressionistic. For example, the poem begins likewise: “The Thames of nocturne of blue and gold/ Changed to a harmony in grey” (1-2). From the very beginning, Wilde alludes to the “Nocturnes in Blue and Gold”, a painting by Whistler, giving his readers a direct visual guide to be mindful of (1687). Even to those who do not know what the painting looks like, the colors blue and gold, connoted with richness and deepness, helps the readers envisage the dark, deep stillness of midnight. In line 2, a lighter color, grey, is immediately introduced, symbolizing how the night’s color is fading into morning. Grey is identified with harmony, creating a slightly incongruous imagery. Harmony has a musical, joyful, united, and balanced connotation, but grey has a connotation of dullness, depression, and conservativeness. Yet, the readers are able to realize that harmony stands for the balance met between the night and the morning and that grey represents the visually perceptible color of that moment. Thus, “harmony in grey” (2) sounds odd at