English Poetry In Its Relation To Painting And The Other Arts

Author : Laurence Binyon
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781330454640
Total Pages : 32 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (546 download)

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Download or read book English Poetry in Its Relation to Painting and the Other Arts, Vol. 8 (Classic Reprint) written by Laurence Binyon and published by . This book was released on 2015-06-28 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from English Poetry in Its Relation to Painting and the Other Arts, Vol. 8 I have no intention of attempting any long disquisition on the relation of the arts to one another, and in particular on the relation of poetry to the other arts. Were we theorizing in the abstract, we might perhaps relate poetry most closely to music. But actually we shall have very much more to say of the relations between poetry and painting. Music and poetry are very near in their origin. Both alike find expression through the rhythms of sound. But as mature arts they have far less in common. Music, like Architecture, is independent of representation or the imitation of Nature. But neither poetry nor painting is in this condition. In either art it is possible to attenuate the matter so that almost nothing but the rhythmic element is left; to make a poem that relies almost entirely on sound, or a painting that relies almost entirely on arabesque. But the poet or painter attempts these things at his peril. Poetry and painting (sculpture also within its more limited range) are in a parallel condition so far as the relation of matter to form is concerned. Alike in painting and poetry, the rhythmic element, stronger perhaps and more explicit in poetry, evokes an emotional mood. We are wrought to a heightened pitch of sensibility; and in this state the subject-matter of painter or poet comes to us with a glow and force such as our senses never experience in the daily traffic of existence. In a perfect example of either art this subject-matter is fused with the form, so that we cannot dissolve them from one another. This was the meaning of Pater's saying that all the arts aspire towards the condition of music, where form and matter are one. Pater's sound doctrine on this point has been very generally accepted; but his statement of it implies a certain prejudice against poetry which has soaked into current opinion: so that at the present day there is among many artists and critics of art a curious horror of the intrusion into art of anything which might be suspected of being literature. I think this may derive from Pater's really astonishing assertion that 'story and sentiment' are the medium of poetry, and that these, not rhythm and imagery, correspond to line and colour in a painting. It has since been a common assumption that painting is in the same condition as music, and that poetry is in a different category. This, I believe, is a fundamental error. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.