In chapter 8 of The Cambridge Companion to Modernism titled “The Visual Arts” Glen Macleod draws an interesting comparison which he calls “the ancient parallel between literature and the visual arts”. In essence Macleod discusses how the evolution of post-impressionism literature mirrors the development of more modern (and abstract) art forms such as Cubism and Surrealism. When discussing Cubism, Macleod writes “Instead of reproducing the object according to realistic conventions dating from the Renaissance, the painter is free to break apart the object and distribute its pieces about the canvas as the composition requires” (Sorry, I can’t read the page numbers on my packet!). Macleod then asserts that “it is certainly true that a great deal of modernist experimentation in both prose and poetry was inspired to some extent by Cubism. The cubist techniques of fragmentation, multiple perspectives, and juxtaposition are part of the modernist repertoire” . This immediately made me think about the poems we were asked to read this week and how they are obvious evidence of these elements in modernist poetry. Overall I feel that poems such as Italian Pictures and Virgin Plus Curtains Minus Dots by Mina Loy display these principles that are associated with Cubism and its influence on literature. I especially see fragmentation in these poems as it seems they are comprised on many parts that may or may not really fit together to make a coherent story. Abstract art (Cubist and Surreal works in particular) tend to leave me confused as to exactly what the artist was trying to accomplish which is CERTAINLY how I felt after reading these poems.