The lyrical in lieu of the literal

For this year’s WoTW [Writing on the Wall], Allan Cooper wrote about Rodin’s sculpture of Balzac. He read these words about Balzac’s eyes while the listeners could peer right into them: “I’ve seen this look in the eyes / of the very old, in the eyes of a dying sparrow. / Do the eyes listen? If so, what do they / hear? Every face is the world’s face, / whether it opens in joy or darkens in grief.”

You can’t read the poem and then not fasten on the eyes of the sculpture, wondering: What do they signify? Colours speak, eyes listen.

– Nancy Bauer, curator of Writing on the Wall

Click here to read the rest of Nancy Bauer’s article in Saturday’s Telegraph Journal about the challenges of capturing and conveying the essence of an art work in poetry.