Sunlight on the River: Poems About Paintings, Paintings About Poems

The world’s great poets interpret the world’s great art in this exquisite book that investigates the connection between art and words, deepening our understanding of both. The poet and the artist share a special kind of vision―an ability to see and penetrate the very essence of their subjects. This volume features poems by writers who turned to paintings for their inspiration, as well as paintings by artists who based their works on poems. Stretching across centuries and styles,this collection includes Rossetti’s haunting sonnet based onBotticelli’s Primavera; Wallace Stevens’s “The Man with the BlueGuitar,” a masterful meditation on an iconic painting by Picasso;William Carlos Williams’s joyous interpretations of scenes byBreughel; and Adrienne Rich lending a compassionate voiceto the subject of Edwin Romanzo Elmer’s The Mourning Chair.These and other pairings appear as elegant texts facing fullpage, glowing illustrations of the paintings. An introductionto some of the greatest poets and painters in history, thisremarkable book makes a perfect gift, offering compellinginsights into the worlds of art and literature, and the relationshipbetween the two.