The Ferment of Images

Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) aptly remarked in An Apology For Poetry (1580): "Nature never set forth the earth in so rich tapestry as diverse poets have done, neither with pleasant rivers, fruitful trees, sweet smelling flowers, nor whatsoever else may make the too much loved earth more lovely. Her world brazen, the poets only delver a golden." The Ferment of Images features some of the most distinguished poems by international authors. Here we find a world of sublime emotions, psychological depth, complex emotional processes, an extraordinary awareness of beauty, a highly subtle moral self-examination, and a spiritual stress. In some of the poems of this volume, we notice something in common with expressionism and surrealism, Freudism, existentialism, etc. The innovations and experiments in style of these poets are remarkable, and reveal "the dramatization of consciousness, the dramatic realization of mind" (Raymond Williams). There remains much truth in T.S. Eliot's statement made in 1928: "We must find a new form of verse which shall be as satisfactory a vehicle for us as blank verse was for the Elizabethans." I trust that a great number of innovations and new verse forms employed by the poets selected for The Ferment of Images will inspire other authors to mould fresh techniques in the framework of postmodern sensibility. The poets writing during the present times should "weave modern everyday situations into the framework of an ancient myth and then winnow and deepen these situations down to the point where, through the transparency of the naturalistic surface shines the immanent, perennial reality of affective truths which are valid for all men at all times" (J. Chiari). The poets included in The Ferment of Images are justly distinguished by an apt felicity of style, descriptive power, and images exploring reality. The Ferment of Images features some of the greatest masters of images and metaphor, brought together in perfect concert and harmony.