On the Laws of the Poetic Art

About this book

A magisterial exploration of poetrys place in the fine arts by one of the twentieth centurys leading poets In these engaging lectures eminent poet Anthony Hecht explores the art of poetry and its relationship to the other fine arts. While the problems he treats entail both philosophic and theoretical discussion he never allows abstract speculation to overshadow his delight in the written texts that he introduces or in the specific examples of painting and music to which he refers. After discussing literatures links with painting and music Hecht investigates the theme of paradise and wilderness especially in Shakespeares The Tempest. He then turns to the question of public and private art exploring the ways in which all the arts participate in balances between private and public modes of discourse and between an exclusive or elitist role and the openly political. Beginning with a discussion of architecture as an illustration of a more general theme of discord and balance the penultimate lecture probes the inner contradictions of works of art and our reactions to them. The sixth and final piece concerns art and morality especially the issues involved in public funding of the arts.