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| Constantin Alajalov Opera Electricians 1947 tempera on paper Dallas Museum of Art |
-Graceland-Cemetery-Chicago-1947-gelatin-silver-print-Art-Institute-of-Chicago.jpg) |
| Harold Allen Inez, Graceland Cemetery, Chicago 1947 gelatin silver print Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Morris Berd Nature Study 1947 oil on canvas Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia |
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| Max Ernst Design in Nature 1947 oil on canvas Menil Collection, Houston |
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| M.C. Escher Other World 1947 wood-engraving Kunstmuseum, The Hague |
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| Alberto Giacometti Standing Figure 1947 oil on canvas Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas |
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| Adolph Gottlieb New York Night Scene 1947 oil and sand on board Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami |
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| Fernand Léger Landscape, Blue Background 1947 oil on canvas Menil Collection, Houston |
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| Henri Matisse Composition, Green Background 1947 painted paper collage on paper Menil Collection, Houston |
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| Wright Morris Front Room reflected in Mirror, the Home Place, near Norfolk, Nebraska 1947 gelatin silver print Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Piet Ouborg The Sign 1947 oil on canvas Kunstmuseum, The Hague |
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| Grace Robertson Bebop - Sherries Dance Hall, Brighton 1947 gelatin silver print Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York |
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| Mark Rothko Number 26 1947 oil on canvas Dallas Museum of Art |
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| John Sennhauser Colorforms in Colorspace #1 1947 oil on canvas Dallas Museum of Art |
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| Carl Sprinchorn Potato Field in Lightning Storm 1947 oil on canvas Portland Museum of Art, Maine |
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| Max Yavno Garage Doors 1947 gelatin silver print Art Institute of Chicago |
from Dichtung und Wahrheit (An Unwritten Poem)
XI
In the old days, a poet normally wrote in the third person, and his normal subject was the deeds of others. The use of the first person he reserved for invoking the Muse or reminding his Prince that it was pay-day; even then, he spoke, not as himself, but in his professional capacity as a bard.
XII
So long as a poet speaks of the deeds of others, his poem may be bad but it cannot be untrue, even if the deeds are legendary, not historical fact. When, in the old days, a poet told how a stripling of nine stone challenged to mortal combat a firedrake weighing twenty tons, or how a rascal stole the Bishop's horse, cuckolded the Grand Vizier and escaped from jail disguised as a washerwoman, it never occurred to anyone in his audience to think: – "Well, his verses may be all very fine or funny, but was the warrior as brave or the rogue as cunning as he says?": their deeds made common sense of his syllabic spell.
XIII
So long as he speaks of the deeds of others, a poet has no difficulty in deciding what style of speech to adopt: a heroic deed calls for a "high" style, a deed of comic cunning for a "low" style, etc.
But suppose there had been no Homer so that Hector and Achilles were forced to write the Iliad themselves in the first person. If what they wrote were in all other respects the poem as we know it, should we not think: – "Genuine heroes do not speak about their deeds in this grand way. These fellows must be play-acting." But, if it is inappropriate for a hero to speak of his own deeds in a grand style, in what style may he appropriately speak? A Comic? Shall we not then suspect him of false modesty?
– W.H. Auden (1959)