# Understanding Ponge *03-24-25* > Through a blind selection process, read and interpret a poem by Francis Ponge. From phrasing/turns of phrase to word choice, make every effort “see” and “hear” Ponge. Then, respond to your chosen passage by designing a sequence of pages that feature the entire passage, plus accompanying visuals. The poem by Ponge we drew was “The End of Autumn”, which reads as follows: > [!quote]+ “The End of Autumn” by Francis Ponge > All of autumn, in the end, is nothing but a cold infusion. Dead leaves of every sort steep in the rain. No fermentation, no production of alcohol: we'll have to wait until spring to judge the effects of a cold compress on a wooden leg > > Sorting the ballots is a disorderly procedure. All the doors of the polling place slam open and shut. Throw it out! Throw it all out! > > Nature rips up her manuscripts, demolishes her bookshelves, furiously clubs down her last fruit. > > Then she abruptly gets up from her work table. She suddenly seems immense: hatless, head in the fog. Swinging her arms, she rapturously breathes in the icy, intellectually clarifying wind. Days are short, night falls fast; there's no time for comedy. > > The earth, in the stratosphere with the other heavenly bodies, looks serious again. The lit up part is narrower, encroached on by valleys of shadow. Its shoes, like a tramp's, soak up water and make music. > > In this frog-farm, this salubrious amphibiguity, everything regains strength, leaps from stone to stone, changes pasture. Streams proliferate. > > This is what's called a good clean-up, with no respect for convention! Dressed or naked, soaked to the marrow. > > And it doesn't dry up right away, it goes on and on. Three months of salutary reflection with no bathrobe, or loofah, no vascular reaction. But its sturdy constitution resists. Ponge’s writing, as we quickly found out, tends to be quite abstract and tends to place traditionally mundane subjects as his focus. As a result, our first focus was dissecting the content, prioritizing understanding the writer’s intent and the emotions within the poem— or as we found— lack thereof. Thematically, the poem tells a story of change, following the change in seasons in a dramatic and personified manner. However, tonally, we interpreted his work as rather detached, more descriptive than immersive, as though told through a third person narrator. ## Sketching ![[CleanShot 2025-03-24 at 22.18.22.webp]] In our early read of this poem, I noticed that there a sense of movement or rhythm in the poem by Ponge that resonated with me. The poem starts out quite slowly, almost static, which creates a sense of anticipation that leads into the sudden action of a female character, presumably Mother Nature, tearing down the remnants of Autumn. However, the action ends almost as soon as it began as the poem pans out to almost describe a woman after a long workday. It becomes peaceful, almost somber, before it picks up to hope again as the cycle begins to prepare to begin again. I found these story beats really compelling and my goal in visualizing the poem was to capture these moments. We had this concept of visualizing the poem through the lens of an office worker so my first sketch was focused on that and setting the type. ![[blog_1understanding ponge-1742950323370.webp]] My second set of sketches was more focused on capturing the movement and emotions that I associated with the poem but visualized through abstract inkblots. >[!img]- Visual Research > When I wanted to create something abstract, I drew some inspiration from motion graphic studies that I’ve seen from creators I follow, such as [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GUzapGhcLY) and [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcoPG0oSqPI) that each are abstract and just focused on a theme rather than a message. > > Thematically, I wanted to create something that felt minimalist and Swiss-like. > > ![[blog_1understandingponge-1742950889511.webp]] > ![[blog_1understandingponge-1742950934797.webp]] > > ![[blog_1understandingponge-1742950955226.webp]] ![[blog_1understandingponge-1742950391618.webp]]