Page 22 - Studio International - August 1965

Helen Frankenthaler

by Dore Ashton

Provincetown
109½ X 93 in.
Acrylic

Nearly every criticism of Frankenthaler's work during lyric poet. First, the voice of the lyric poet is that of the
the fifteen years she has exhibited professionally incor­ poet addressing himself, or else, no one. He begins
porates the epithet 'lyrical'. Certainly the untrammelled with a creative germ-Eliot calls it an embryo-and
fancy, the exuberance, the air of improvisational free­ then searches for words. When he has found the words,
dom suffused in everything she does justifies seeing the 'thing' for which they had to be found disappears.
her as an essentially lyrical painter. But the idea of In its place is the poem.
lyricism itself requires careful definition. Eliot adds that the lyric poet does not know what he
In the commonsense definition, lyricism describes has to say until he has said it, and in the effort to say it,
spontaneity, sensuousness and ardent emotion. Some­ he is not concerned with making others understand.
times it is associated with hedonistic joy, but it need not His primary task is to be understood to himself.
be. By origin the word lyricism merely defines that kind It is important in a careful definition of lyricism to
of poetry that avoids the extended narration of the epic. understand that lightness of touch, singleness of
T. S Eliot has given us an excellent description of the passion, soaring imagery and bright colour do not
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