7. BRIDGING REALITY WITH ARTISTIC REPRESENTATION IN POSTMODERNIST POETRY: ASHBERY’S SELF-PORTRAIT IN A CANVAS MIRRORAuteur: Komla M. AVONO & Komi AMEDOKPO

Many artists’ imagination picturizes the creation of new world because portraying reality as a phenomenal experience constitutes a great challenge in the artistic and poetic world. This essay evaluates Ashbery’s Self-Portrait in a Canvas Mirror to establish that the poet criticizes realist movement. Based on the stylistic analysis, the study comes up with findings that Ashbery’s poetry most accurately showcases the difference between poetic reality and tangible reality. Interestingly enough, both artistic and poetic worlds are not meant to be taken as the ultimate truth because artists’ mind has less capacity to capture the concrete reality. As a matter of fact, art should not be confined to realistic portrayals but rather serve as a medium for exploring deeper truths about existence. With creativity and imagination, artists should be able to transcend realistic confinement