Aug 042013
Art and Artists: Poems (Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets)
Art and Artists: Poems is a sumptuous collection of visions in verse—the work of centuries of poets who have used their own art form to illuminate art created by others.
A wide variety of visual art forms have inspired great poetry, from painting, sculpture, and photography to tapestry, folk art, and calligraphy. Included here are poems that celebrate Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Claude Monet’s Water Lilies, and Grant Wood’s American Gothic. Here are such well-known poems as Joh
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Price: $ 7.42
In Praise,
As a solitary, devout museum wanderer, I have carried single poems–those written in praise, question, confusion, joy about works of art–with me for inspiration and illumination. I made photocopies of these poems, one by one, to bring as I looked at paintings and sculpture. Who has not? With such as Keat’s Ode to a Grecian Urn, Tranströmer’s extraordinary seeing through a wall in Vermeer, Mandelstam’s awed Hagia Sophia, Crane’s monumental Brooklyn Bridge, Rilke’s great last line, “You must change your life,” one is privileged to see through the poets’ eyes, often an enlightening vision. Now, thrillingly, Emily Fragos has assembled an entire bible of ekphrastic poems in a beautifully designed format that is easy to carry in your purse or pocket. It is full of surprises, treasures, familiars, magic. As I write this, I am loading my fanny pack to head across the park for an afternoon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art–Art and Artists will be my companion. Bravo, Ms. Fragos!
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|Art and Artists,
A gem of a book for anyone who loves art and poetry. Bought two, gave one as a gift.
R. May
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|Different from what I expected,
I thought this was a volume of works of art that had inspired poets (a la Ode to a Grecian Urn) with illustrations of the art alongside the accompanying poetry that it inspired.
The book is just the poetry inspired by a work of art, without accompanying illustrations. I like the poetry even tho it’s not my favorite genre. But I would very much have liked to see the subject piece of art.
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