The Poor Poet

In his attic, the poet is lying on his mattress – he does not earn enough money to buy himself a proper bed. The open umbrella is there to keep him from getting wet, as the roof likely leaks. In Spitzweg's time, the umbrella was a fashionable accessory for middle-class citizens when they appeared in public, protecting them from rain and sunshine. The symbol often appears in caricatures of that era. Spitzweg painted a variety of umbrellas, not only in his three versions of The Poor Poet but also in other works. It is likely cold, and the poet is too poor to heat his room with the oven. He could use the rejected manuscript there as fuel – the Latin title on it reads "The Third Bundle of my Works" – but it will not warm him for long. Despite the adversity, the man is trying to write a new poem. He might have worked on it all night, as indicated by the candle at the left being almost burned completely. The books beside his bed and, the ancient poetic hexameter drawn on the wall at center, support him in his work. In this first version of the painting, the book leaning at the wall to the right does not have a title yet. In later versions Spitzweg added "Gradus ad Parnassum" ("Step to Parnassus") on the spin of the book. Parnassus is a mountain in Greece and home to the mythological muses. The title most probably is a reference to a textbook on Latin verses by Paul Aler (1656 – 1727). The poet is distracted by a flea that he tries to crush between thumb and third finger of his right hand. Here Spitzweg perhaps refers to Mephistopheles' "Flea Song" in Goethe's famous drama "Faust."