Poet and Painter

Author: (American) Auden
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-05-01
Features: On the wall of Auden's messy New York apartment hung Blake's woodcut "Ancient Days," hand-colored by Blake himself. However, it is said that despite possessing the most sensitive ear among 20th-century English poets, Auden's eyesight was inferior. He was almost indifferent to painting, yet he paid great attention to "higher" literature and musical arts. Nevertheless, he wrote one of the most famous modern poems about a painting, naming it after the name of a museum (located in a city threatened by Hitler) and eagerly compressing several paintings into a moral allegory. How a painting can guide us in text or life attracted Auden in this selected collection of outstanding works by foreign literary masters such as Auden.