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Salvador Dalí's poem “The Narcissus” was inspired by his surrealist painting of the same name. Dalí, who expressed his dreams in painting, taps into his unconscious in this poem, which was inspired by Ovid's Metamorphosis. In many respects, the poem and painting can be seen as a self-portrait, since, among his surrealist contemporaries, Dalí was known for his vanity. He frequently referred to his split personality (one half ordinary person, one half genius) as represented by two different narcissistic representations. Dalí questioned his own sanity. He said, “The only difference between me and a madman is that I am not mad.” In this poem that accompanies a painting, Dalí talks of the new Narcissus, the flower, being Gala, his wife, whereas he is the untransformed Narcissus.
Narcissus, in his immobility,absorbed by his reflectionwith the digestive slowness of carnivorous plants,becomes invisible.
There remains of him onlythe hallucinatingly white oval of his head,his head again more tender,his head, chrysalis of hidden biological designs,Page 103his head held up by the tips of the water's fingers,