Of Paintings and Poetry

In his 1918 review of the Imagist movement, A Retrospect, Ezra Pound discusses, amongst other things, the difference between painting a landscape and writing a poem about it. He argues that the difference is that the painter describes the landscape while the poet presents it.

It's a nice distinction, and one that you (or I) might care to argue with. However, whether or not you accept Pound's position, it does raise an interesting question about the differences between the two arts. It also raises a number of considerations regarding the whole area of those poets who write about art and artists, a group that includes Pound himself, regardless of his proscriptions.

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