Language and Art
(From: A Theory for Art)
If language is employed without due care
Or understanding of its latencies,
It easily misleads the sense of those
Who are unwary of its subtleties –
Accreted over centuries – that cause
Inaccurate interpretations or
Complete incomprehensibility.
Art is the language of emotions, writ
In international symbols, shaped to be
Expressive of the most profound concerns
Mankind can draw from its experience
Of past, of present, of futurity;
Of fact or fancy, fantasy or myth,
Or insightful imagination’s flair.
Art is the lingua franca of the mind,
(The English of emotive intercourse),
Which all intuitively understand.
The art of language is to be exact –
To find expressions which precisely match
Each nuance of the matters they describe –
That others may be brought to recognise
And understand the subjects though they were,
(Until that moment), quite unknown to them.
Clear exposition is no facile skill –
Whatever language is employed – it is
An artform in itself whose excellence
Is won through practice and due diligence.
The language of art is symbolical:
It re-presents reality and truth,
(As artists wish those concepts to appear
Within their audiences’ consciousness),
By redefining universal themes
Instinct within the psychic reservoir
Which culture and experience have filled,
Through countless ages of development,
Inside the neural networks of their brains.
The language of art is pictorial.
It limns in imagistic words, (or marks
Pencilled, inked, brushed or etched on surfaces),
Invisible, intangible ideas –
Originating in the artist’s brain –
And so embodies them with physical
Reality that others can perceive
Them and evaluate their meanings’ worth.
For artists, (as for scientists), all signs
Are instruments for special purposes –
Like surgeons’ scalpels sharp, incisive, clean –
Requiring deft precision in their use
To excise cancerous opacities
And other threatening malignancies
Whilst leaving healthy tissues unimpaired.
Signs are constructive, too; they build
Significances and allow those who
Are skilled in their deployment to transmute
Banalities into magnificent
Re-presentations of experience
Almost alchemical in their effects.
For artists, mastery of signs – their tools –
Is the best foundation for their work;
For only when achieved may they indulge
In such infractions of the basic rules
As will enhance the impact of a piece,
(Without impairing its integrity
Of purpose, or the meaning it conveys),
On those who are exposed to what it says.
For poets, language also is the art
Of sounds. To marry signs with sounds and sense
Requires refined discriminating skills
That poets – like music composers – should
Develop conscientiously along
With metrics, rhythmical control and range
Of tone. These elements, combined, invest
A work with colour and emotional
Effects essential to evoke, (in those
Who read or hear), precisely what was meant
To be vicariously experienced.
