Against a backdrop of the presentation of quite innovative artists,
filmmakers, & musicians as well as critical coverage thereof, the National
Gallery of Art embarrasses itself by offering up this series of lit-crit
lectures which doesn't even hint at treatment of the fine arts in its
attempt to polish the tombs of a dead New England lineage. Whether
individuals in the audience will challenge Vendler's "taste" remains to be
seen. Barry Alpert
The Fifty-sixth A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts 2007
Last Looks, Last Books: The Binocular Poetry of Death
Helen Vendler, the A. Kingsley Porter University Professor at Harvard
University
Introduction: Sustaining a Double View
April 15
Facing the Worst: Wallace Stevens, "The Rock"
April 22
The Contest of Melodrama and Restraint: Sylvia Plath, "Ariel"
April 29
Death by Subtraction: Robert Lowell, "Day by Day"
May 6
Caught and Freed: Elizabeth Bishop, "Geography III"
May 13
Self-Portraits while Dying: James Merrill, "A Scattering of Salts"
May 20
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