Beuatiful Death + Poem

[Source: kottke.org]

I thought this pic was really beautiful and doesn't make you believe what it really is, a beautiful death. It kind of is an iconic picture automatically for me... a bit odd.

I'll copy and paste what kottke.org wrote I hope they don't mind but I can't be paraphrasing :)

"On May 1, 1947, Evelyn McHale leapt to her death from the observation deck of the Empire State Building. Photographer Robert Wiles took a photo of McHale a few minutes after her death.

The photo ran a couple of weeks later in Life magazine accompanied by the following caption:

On May Day, just after leaving her fiancé, 23-year-old Evelyn McHale wrote a note. 'He is much better off without me ... I wouldn't make a good wife for anybody,' ... Then she crossed it out. She went to the observation platform of the Empire State Building. Through the mist she gazed at the street, 86 floors below. Then she jumped. In her desperate determination she leaped clear of the setbacks and hit a United Nations limousine parked at the curb. Across the street photography student Robert Wiles heard an explosive crash. Just four minutes after Evelyn McHale's death Wiles got this picture of death's violence and its composure.

From McHale's NY Times obituary, Empire State Ends Life of Girl, 20:

At 10:40 A. M., Patrolman John Morrissey of Traffic C, directing traffic at Thirty-fourth Street and Fifth Avenue, noticed a swirling white scarf floating down from the upper floors of the Empire State. A moment later he heard a crash that sounded like an explosion. He saw a crowd converge in Thirty-third Street.

Two hundred feet west of Fifth Avenue, Miss McHale's body landed atop the car. The impact stove in the metal roof and shattered the car's windows. The driver was in a near-by drug store, thereby escaping death or serious injury.

On the observation deck, Detective Frank Murray of the West Thirtieth Street station, found Miss McHale's gray cloth coat, her pocketbook with several dollars and the note, and a make-up kit filled with family pictures.

The serenity of McHale's body amidst the crumpled wreckage it caused is astounding. Years later, Andy Warhol appropriated Wiles' photography for a print called Suicide (Fallen Body), but I can't find a copy of it anywhere online.Anyone?"

Fitting poem by Joyce Kilmer called "To A Young Poet Who Killed Himself"

"

To a Young Poet who Killed Himself

BY JOYCE KILMER

When you had played with life a space

And made it drink and lust and sing,

You flung it back into God's face

And thought you did a noble thing.

"Lo, I have lived and loved," you said,

"And sung to fools too dull to hear me.

Now for a cool and grassy bed

With violets in blossom near me."

Well, rest is good for weary feet,

Although they ran for no great prize;

And violets are very sweet,

Although their roots are in your eyes.

But hark to what the earthworms say

Who share with you your muddy haven:

"The fight was on — you ran away.

You are a coward and a craven."

"The rug is ruined where you bled;

It was a dirty way to die!

To put a bullet through your head

And make a silly woman cry!

You could not vex the merry stars

Nor make them heed you, dead or living.

Not all your puny anger mars

God's irresistible forgiving.

"Yes, God forgives and men forget,

And you're forgiven and forgotten.

You may be gaily sinning yet

And quick and fresh instead of rotten.

And when you think of love and fame

And all that might have come to pass,

Then don't you feel a little shame?

And don't you think you were an ass?""