I will be reading this essay in full over the next day or two. Having made it up to the 5-part section ending in “The Practice of Poetry,” I can say that your thoughts are singing a true song and one that is vital in our time. Thank you for the depth of your consideration, Nik.
These sections stand out:
“The legitimization and source of poetry is inescapably connected to love. We might love the Good because it is beneficial to us. However, the perfection of love is the transcendence of motivation. We love the Good because we love the Good.”
“If a conflict arises between Truth and Poetry, Truth must be given sovereignty.”
“Poetry claims that Man is a receptive being […] if man is a receptive being, it implies that there is something to receive—that there is a voice from beyond which calls out.”
“Poetically speaking, we now exist as the children of Theory—the academic poetics of the 20th century. Countless points of order have been overturned in the wake of Theory; And flatly, I believe that Theory has not been honest in its aims.”
Would you be willing for me to cross-post this to my own small readership once I’ve finished reading it? From all I can see thus far, I believe this essay deserves to be widely read.
Thank you for reading and for the encouraging words. I would be honored if you cross-post this piece. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I greatly appreciate them, they are an immense help to me.
My pleasure! My own thoughts on poetry haven't been nearly so deep, and I've only been taking it seriously as a discipline worth time and thought (rather than just gut-writing) for around a year. So your piece is helpful in putting words to the inclinations of my instinct.
The wrap up here is good; so much of what constitutes "poetry" these days is merely run-on sentences chopped into two or three word fragments. What happened to rhyme and meter? Or at least meter?
I grew up loving "Casey at the Bat" and the poems of Poe, Frost, Carrol, Service, Kipling, and Ogden Nash...they were fun to read, engaging, memorable. I wanted to memorize them so I could keep them near me always! Later I discovered other, more "literate" poets but those lyrical, verbal magicians listed above were the ones that made me love poetry.
I will be reading this essay in full over the next day or two. Having made it up to the 5-part section ending in “The Practice of Poetry,” I can say that your thoughts are singing a true song and one that is vital in our time. Thank you for the depth of your consideration, Nik.
These sections stand out:
“The legitimization and source of poetry is inescapably connected to love. We might love the Good because it is beneficial to us. However, the perfection of love is the transcendence of motivation. We love the Good because we love the Good.”
“If a conflict arises between Truth and Poetry, Truth must be given sovereignty.”
“Poetry claims that Man is a receptive being […] if man is a receptive being, it implies that there is something to receive—that there is a voice from beyond which calls out.”
“Poetically speaking, we now exist as the children of Theory—the academic poetics of the 20th century. Countless points of order have been overturned in the wake of Theory; And flatly, I believe that Theory has not been honest in its aims.”
Would you be willing for me to cross-post this to my own small readership once I’ve finished reading it? From all I can see thus far, I believe this essay deserves to be widely read.
Thank you for reading and for the encouraging words. I would be honored if you cross-post this piece. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I greatly appreciate them, they are an immense help to me.
My pleasure! My own thoughts on poetry haven't been nearly so deep, and I've only been taking it seriously as a discipline worth time and thought (rather than just gut-writing) for around a year. So your piece is helpful in putting words to the inclinations of my instinct.
The wrap up here is good; so much of what constitutes "poetry" these days is merely run-on sentences chopped into two or three word fragments. What happened to rhyme and meter? Or at least meter?
I grew up loving "Casey at the Bat" and the poems of Poe, Frost, Carrol, Service, Kipling, and Ogden Nash...they were fun to read, engaging, memorable. I wanted to memorize them so I could keep them near me always! Later I discovered other, more "literate" poets but those lyrical, verbal magicians listed above were the ones that made me love poetry.
That's the kind of poetry I want to write.
Thanks for this essay.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I am always glad to see that meter still has is proponents and practitioners.
Here's to a bright future for the mellifluous sounds of poetry!
I sure hope so!