Description: Visions of paradise, secrets of existence, the world of dreams ... This luminous anthology unites visionary poetry from all over the world with masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Offering glimpses of realms beyond everyday experience are poetic wishes, dreams, prophecies, and epiphanies, simple to sublime, from many viewpoints and times. Most are illuminated by two works of art, unfolding each poem's mystery with richness and clarity. Balthus's Girl at a Window suggests the literal setting of Emily Dickinson's "I Dwell in Possibility", while on the facing page Paul Klee's glowing gardens conjure up a kingdom of magic and wonder. Henri-Edmond Cross's Landscape with Stars and Henri Matisse's Icarus together evoke the cosmic journey celebrated in Charles Baudelaire's "Elevation". Mysterious scenes in Japanese lacquer echo Mary Oliver's "Sleeping in the Forest", and mythic paintings by Thomas Cole and J. M. W. Turner animate Rainer Maria Rilke's invocation to awakening gods. Such diverse voices as Sappho, William Blake, Langston Hughes, Rabindranath Tagore, Kabir, and Saint Teresa of Avila accompany equally varied works of art. Henry David Thoreau's vision of timeless harmony appears with an ancient Greek statue of a harp player; William Shakespeare's sonnet about lucid dreaming, with Constantin Brancusi's Sleeping Muse. Throughout, an inspiring flow of poetic and artistic visions creates a buoyant tour of the creative imagination.

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