On the Laws of the Poetic Art

A magisterial exploration of poetry’s place in the fine arts by one of the twentieth century's leading poets

In this book, 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 literature’s links with painting and music, Hecht investigates the theme of paradise and wilderness, especially in Shakespeare’s 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, while the final piece concerns art and morality.

"Winner of the 1997 Tanning Prize for Lifetime Achievement, Academy of American Poets"

"Anthony Hecht is very much our poet-critic now, even as John Crowe Ransom and W. H. Auden were in previous generations. His On the Laws of the Poetic Art is civilized and superb criticism of the higher relations between poetry and the other arts, and is particularly valuable in this dark time, when barbarism and politics threaten all the arts."—Harold Bloom, Yale University

"Civilized, charming, wise—Anthony Hecht's is an overview we hardly deserve and can only be grateful for."—James Merrill

"Anthony Hecht's book speaks with that irresistible authority that comes only from a true artist who has spent a lifetime reflecting on his medium. And yet this profound and engaging volume is not only about poetry. It is a magisterial exploration of the nature of art itself."—Dana Gioia