Mina Loy was fascinated by the relationship between art and poetry, and in her poems, we are able to perceive the features of Cubism and Futurism. In this paper, we can get a glimpse of Mina Loy's intricate illustration of her reflections upon modern art and the modern world. Loy's poem "'The Starry Sky' of Wyndham Lewis" presents a Cubist view of art, divorced from the tradition; while "Brancusi's Golden Bird" exclaims the dynamism of Futurism. It is clear that Mina Loy celebrates the revolution of art, the multiple points of view, and the dynamics of new creation in the modern mind. She shows us the light of modern progression. Nevertheless, at the same time, she raises doubts about the destruction brought about by modernity. "Der Blinde Junge," by presenting a war victim, delineates the blindness of the modern mind and the inability of artists to confront modern reality. I will explore the diverse contrasts and conflicts in the poems.

     "'The Starry Sky' of Wyndham Lewis" and "Brancusi's Golden Bird" are excellent illustrations of modern artistic conceptions about light in Cubism and Futurism. The former presents the Cubist idea of geometrical form and simultaneity; while the latter expresses the Futurist concept of essence in dynamism. Mina Loy expresses her optimistic view on the new forms of art. They reflect the freedom from a monopoly tradition and the co-existence of various possibilities. Moreover, in the dynamics of new construction, the modern mind welcomes a progression whose future is limitless and unpredictable.

     One of the features of Cubism is the importance of geometrical form, which reduces objects to their essence. In a letter written to Emile Bernard, Cezanne writes the famous sentence: "You must see in nature the cylinder, the sphere, the cone" (Barr 30). Cubist painters such as Braque and Picasso attempted "to geometrize, to reduce to fundamental geometric forms the disorder of nature" (Barr 30). In other words, all things, including human figures, are presented in geometrical forms like circles, globes, triangles, squares, circular cones, and cylinders. The Cubist artists present the world not from a traditional point of view, which offer a seemingly complete shape of the object. Rather, they 'restore' everything into geometrical forms and believe it is the only way to discover the real "nature" of objects. They decompose the structures of objects and recompose the essences in their paintings. The painting does not present the images we observe in daily life, but the real "fundamental" objective beings of things. It is a subversion against the well-contained tradition. The 'break' of the shape manifests a 'release' from the imprisonment of a closed perspective.

   Another strategy to the truth is the new way of seeing, the principle of "simultaneity--the simultaneous presentation of different views of an object in the same picture" (Barr 31). The Cubist artists do not look at the object from only one angle, but from different angles (different 'points' of view), and so they present the different facets of one object and put them on the same surface. We are allowed to see the front and back, left and right, top and bottom, and inside and outside of the same object. The artist presents the 'movement' of the 'viewer,' different from the futurists, who depict the several forms produced in the movement of the 'object.' Simultaneity cannot be separated from instantaneous representation, meaning the artist tends to present diverse forms, experiences, and different moments in just one 'instance.' And they attempt to break the traditional time sequence of seeing, rearranging a series of events or observation, and forcing the viewer to perceive an instant impression of collage.

     The third mark of Cubism is transparent overlapping of objects, which creates competitive tension between co-existing spaces. This skill is to show that all things in the painting occupy equally important positions. Traditionally, in a painting, the object near the viewer is large and clear, but the one far away is small, vague and sometimes covered by the object in front. There is a hierarchy of the importance of objects. The Cubists attempts to give each object the same weight. They use the skill of transparent overlapping to reveal the space possessed by each object, and to endow each with complete shape. However, this skill presents a sense of competition as well. Both principles of simultaneity and transparent overlapping convey an acceptability of multiplicity. The 'absolute authority' is overthrown and displaced by diverse relative opinions.

     As for the Futurist artists, they attempt to express "movement, force, and the passage of time," (Barr 56) a new perspective different from the Impressionists and the Cubists. To the Impressionists, "the light might move and change but the object remained static," and to the Cubists, "the viewer himself might move about the object but, again, the object itself remained essentially static—a posed model or still life" (Barr 56). Nevertheless, the Futurists apply the device of simultaneity not to static but to "kinetic and dynamic analysis," (Barr 56) which emphasizes the movement of the object. By displaying the lines of force, they present dynamism in the several forms of the moving object.  A running horse has not four but twenty legs. A bird flies on its wings of "a flickering series" (Barr 58). The world of Futurism is always in the process of movement and variety, which is taken as the truth and the essence of things. It celebrates the modern progression and the coming of different new creations.

     The poem "'The Starry Sky' of Wyndham Lewis," was written according to Wyndham Lewis' Cubist painting, which presents two human figures in geometrical form, like two sculptures roughly carved of stone. Mina Loy expresses her applause to the artistic subversion in the first two stanzas.
 

The human figures are reduced to essence, which is the 'nature' of its existence. The traditional well-contained human shapes are only "mist," which is changeable, unstable, superficial, and easy to disperse. Most of all, they are not real. The Cubist attempts to discover the truth beneath the fake appearance, and it is the essential geometrical form, the hard, stable, and eternal "rocks" from the disorder of "mist" of the modern world. These "pyramidical" figures are "survivors" from the process of 'reduction.' By stripping off the external appearance, what remains is the essence that survives in the space. The question mark in the end is not really raising a question, but expresses the poet's exclamation on the creation of new art.
 

     This stanza presents the simultaneity, one major Cubist spirit. To speak more specifically, it is the representation of instantaneity. Different moments are brought together, and each moment exists in the same space at the same time point. In other words, each of them is 'frozen' and given the same importance. There is no process of time passing, because the lineal sequence is broken and every time point is "Infinite." They are "the ghosts of the stars," which shine forever and will never perish. Therefore, each moment is presented as "Presence." The concept of simultaneous representation of different spaces is applied here as the instantaneous display of different momentary 'photo' shots. And that is why the poet uses the theatrical terms. These diverse moments are like pictures or photos displayed in the "cyclorama" of the "austere theatre," and the visual art are able to 'frozen' time in its frame to be "Infinite."
 

     The fourth and the fifth stanzas show the confrontation between traditional and modern worlds. The "celibate" independent "shadows," meaning the new artistic point of view, attacks the "aged radiance" of suns and moons. Cubism appears as a new and independent force decidedly divorcing from the traditional artistic view, which had developed for a long history. "Suns and moons" had ever been enlightening, but now they are old and forced to face the emergency of new generation and new perspective. Therefore, the old Heaven is "flinching" from the "rays" of modern artistic streams, and the "airy eyes of angels," of the Romantic style, the "sublime," of the classical spirit, and "experiment in pointillism," which is the post-Impressionism, all "faded away." They were once "the celestial conservatories blooming with light," which enlightened several generations, like a garden protecting but also limiting, and even smothering innumerable artistic souls. Now in the overwhelming power of the new "celibate shadows," they are all "blown out."

     And now, the new streams are "enviable immigrants / Into the pure dimension," which is "immune" and "serene." They even "devour" the religious reign, which was once the director of artistic creation. The "pure dimension," I believe, is the 'fourth dimension,' which combines time and space together. In this dimension, different times and spaces are co-existing without reducing any one's significance. It is again the representation of simultaneity. This new perspective is a 'new creation,' distinguished from God's old creation, "Jehovah's seven days." It strips off the external body of the object until the essence, the "silent entrails" are left as "geometric Chimeras," which is a modern 'collage.'

     Different from Wyndham Lewis' Cubist aesthetics, Brancusi expresses his Futurist point of view. "Brancusi's Golden Bird" illustrates the golden sculpture of the Futurist artist. The central idea is dynamism and movement, represented in the shining light of the bird. Light plays a significant role, and only through it, can the viewer perceive the dynamism, movement, variety, and lines of force. Mina Loy echoes with the intellectual enlightenment of the modern mind. The light of the sculpture brings out transcendental insight and modern imagination, which is hopeful and successful.

     In the first two stanzas, Mina Loy involves with the sculpture by perceiving the hidden truth beneath the appearance of this artistic work.
 

Loy leads us to be aware of the transformation of art. At the first glimpse, it looks like a piece of simple carving without any specialty. However, it summons the perceiver to enter the kernel and to touch the internal spirit of modern imagination. And only through involvement and interaction, can the viewer get real comprehension. Both the artist and the viewer play the role of modern God, who engenders a new creation. Like the Christian God, who blows spirit into a human shape made of earth, this God bestows this piece of metal with "the aesthetic archetype"—"the Alpha and Omega of Form," an embodiment of transcendental intelligence of modern mind. The process of 'change' from pure material to spiritual enlightenment, through imagination, reveals exactly the Futurist principle—movement and dynamics. And the following stanza delineates the details of the new creation and the real face of the golden bird.

     Paradoxically, the artist creates through destruction, not giving external appearance, but taking it off. After stripping off outside decoration, the creator reveals the true body, the essential form of the bird. And it is a dynamical essence—flight—constant movement of an archetypal bird.
 

We perceive an "ultimate rhythm," which is "flight," existing in the heart of the bird. And after all external "extremities" are torn off, the bird itself has become pure abstract existence. Such process of 'breaking off' works from inside to outside. As the creator bestows the spirit of flight to the bird through imagination, it becomes alive and is struggling out of this piece of metal, as if out of the imprisonment of the external body.

     The principle of dynamic is revealed in two ways: the process of transformation, of 'stripping off,' and the state of flight, displayed through the shining of light. The fourth and fifth stanzas is a description of the 'glow' of the flight, steady and dynamical.
 

     The essences are held together in the container. Like the Egyptian god Osiris, whose body was dismembered, but afterward whose wife put them together, the bird is destroyed and constructed by "the absolute act of art." And in the continuous movement of destruction and creation, the essence of the bird—flight—gives off light like dazzling flames reflecting in the eyes of the perceiver.

     In the last two stanzas, I would like to discuss the audio-visual relationship presented in the sculpture. My argument is that on this sculpture, by the dazzling light, stillness 'is' movement per se, and silence 'is' voice per se. The subversive innovation lies on the light, which endows wings and voice to the work. It is not certainly a sculpture of bird, which appears in a traditional shape with wings, plume, crest, claws, beak, and eyes. It is actually a sculpture of 'flight,' the essence left when all the external things are 'stripped off.' Furthermore, I would say, it is a sculpture of 'singing,' though we cannot hear any voice from it. While all voices are 'stopped,' then silence is its very voice; just like after all external ornaments are stripped off, this "lump of metal" is the essence of the sculpture, and that is flight. The movement of flight is invisible, but we can perceive it through the light. Similarly, the voice of singing is inaudible, but we hear it by the light. And this is why this sculpture is a "gong":
 

The visual elements and the audio elements are intertwined by the light. The singing instrument "gong" is "polished," and it "shills" with "brass." Light 'is' its wings as well as its voice. Only when the sculpture is shining—"the aggressive light strikes its significance"—then can we see the 'flight' and hear the 'singing.' Therefore, in the last line, the visual adjective is put together with the audio noun—"gorgeous reticence."

     Mina Loy celebrates dynamics of Futurism in "Brancusi's Golden Bird," which also expresses her optimistic attitude toward modern intelligence and imagination. Nonetheless, her position is somewhat ambivalent, for in "Der Blinde Junge," she forcefully attacks on Futurist violence and the destruction brought by modern civilization. Modernity brings new intellectual enlightenment and industrial progression. But wars and mechanical life come with it as well. Futurism embraces both sides:
 

     Mina Loy celebrates the 'light' of modernity in "Brancusi's Golden Bird." However, in the poem "Der Blinde Junge," meaning "the blind youth," she takes the light of modern civilization as a destructive force. This poem contains various kinds of binary oppositions between culture and war, light and darkness, outward force and inward force, human subject and mechanical element, movement of flight and static state, and hierarchical existence embodied by the sun and the "thing." Therefore, we are able to discover contrast and tension everywhere in the poem. There are always two forces combatting and no one seems to win, because in the end they are no more distinguishable from each other. There is no clear line to separate them, and the binary oppositions are somewhat broken and intertwined. And in the complex conflict, the blind youth, as a modern artist, fails to find any way out of the dilemma.
 

     The first stanza displays the contrast between culture and war. Bellona, the name of the goddess of war, responds to Kriegsopfer, which is similar to 'kriegspiel,' meaning the military chess, used and controlled for strategical purpose. The former is a name of an overwhelming violent power, which brings destruction, while the latter is a symbol of war victim. They construct a world violated by the negative force. At the same time, there appears the name of culture, Vienna, which represents a positive force. It is an emblem of history, civilization, and culture. However, ironically, the "dam Bellona" abandons "Kriegsopfer" upon the pavement of "Vienna." In the city of civilization, war happens and destroys cruelly. The center of Culture is supposed to 'enlighten' modern people. Nevertheless, it let the goddess of war stride and abandon on its pavement. Destruction and construction are blurred, and this young artist, an "eyeless offspring," is the very victim of the circumstance. His blindness brings out the ambiguous distinction between war and culture, and modern people's inability to find a way out in the center of Western modern civilization.
 

     In the second stanza, the sun, "sparkling precipitate," "the spectral day," represents light; while "the visionless obstacle," manifests darkness. The image of the sun is presented as aggressive and indifferent, because it attempts to "involve"—control, transgress, attack—the other side, the darkness. The light is "sparkling" outward into every corner of the city, but it does not bring warmth and consolation but "spectral" horror. The city is 'haunted' by the sun, which is like a ghost. The blindness of the artist has closed him in a space of self-enclosure. And the indifference of the culture and society not only isolates him, but also attempts to attack him with its "sparkling" dominant power. There is a contrast between the light of the city and the darkness of the blind artist. Nonetheless, the binary opposition is subverted, too. The light is actually a force of darkness, "the black lightning"; while the darkness represents the longing for true light, which can really enlighten the blind man.
 

     The third and the fourth stanzas present the blind artist as a split subject driven by two forces, outwardly confronting "against the light," and inwardly retreating in "centripetal sentience." On the one hand, his blindness is a strong protest against the destruction of war and the indifference of modern society. Though he is "slow," weak upon his "virginal nonentity," deprived of meaning of existence in his environment, he still uses his "slow blind face" "pushing" "against the light," and "blows out damnation and concussive dark" "upon a mouth-organ." On the other hand, being sentenced as a war victim and abandoned by "the dam Bellona," he closes himself from the outside world like a "pure purposeless eremite," and his self-enclosure like a "centripetal" force drives him inwardly to dwell in darkness. As a result, the struggle between the outward force and the inward force almost tears him apart and has made him a split subject. The binary opposition is presented as a violent fight, and the young artist is exactly the victim.

     He is split in the conflict of two forces, and simultaneously, he lost his subjectivity.
 

     Because of the lack of identity, he was lost in the modern world and has no power to move. There is nowhere for him to rebuild his identity. He is both human and mechanical, but belongs to none. He lives upon "carnose" as well as "horologe." Modern civilization and industrialization has transformed and destroyed his knowledge of himself. He exists like a 'clock,' whose "index" is driven by the mechanical power of the new order, (or the disorder) of the world. And it is a picture of the situation of the modern mind, which gets lost and "moves not." What is the definition of human beings? What view should the modern man take upon the construction of progression and destruction of war? The answer is lost, and so is the blind artist.
 

     Consequently, he is stuck between culture and war, light and darkness, and human beings and machine, lost his identity, and cannot move. Although he has tried much effort to "pushing" "against the light," the "centripetal" force pulls him back at the same time. He desires "flight," but his flight is "static." Hence, there is a contrast between movement and stillness, or it is proper to say, he is 'stuck.' Being "void and extinct," he has nothing inside, except "nonentity." Having no more identity and power, he is only an "obstacle" abandoned and despised by the world. Here we are given a picture of the inter-positions of the sun and the blind artist. One is moving while the other is stuck. One is searching and striding around for its prey while the other is the trapped prey waiting to be devoured.
 

     As a trapped prey, the blind man is objectified from human to nonhuman being. Like an animal, he uses his "snout" "nozzling the sun, being struck by "the black lightning" and "drowned" by the overwhelming power of animal "instinct." In the hierarchy, he is falling down and down. In the end, he is even reduced from animal to pure "thing," totally objectified. In the light of the modern world, man is no more the center of the world, but becomes "nonentity" of "thing"; while the sun, the goddess of war, and the indifferent Vienna occupy on the top of the hierarchy. And between the top and the bottom, there emerges the most violent conflict. The blind "thing" calls attention from the "illuminati of the colored earth." Though 'it' is "eyeless," "visionless," "purposeless," and "expressionless," the blind young artist uses sounds instead of vision to reach to and confront with the world. Mina Loy employs 'audio words' to stress the uselessness of eyes. She even replaces harmonica with "mouth-organ," to emphasize the only way of the artist to accuse against the world.

     As a modern poet, Mina Loy responds to the artistic movements of her time. She is prudent to keep her position pro and against them. Cubism and Futurism reflect the new art and new thought, which subvert the smothered tradition and bring fresh air. But Mina Loy does not blindly embrace them, but accuses the violence and destruction with her sensible and forceful words.

Barr, Alfred Hamilton.  Cubism and Abstract Art.  New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 
     1936. 
Loy, Mina.  The Last Lunar Baedecker.  Ed. Roger L. Conover.  Highlands: Jargon, 1982.