Tag: experience

poetry appreciation

too much reality

Mar 10, 2022 #amazement, #appreciation, #awe, #experience, #fear, #Fortune, #gratitude, #grief, #hope, #Howe, #innocence, #Kennedy, #lucky, #Marie Howe, #presence, #september 12 2001, #The Gate, #wonder, #XJ Kennedy by Lucy Crispin

There’s a lot of reality to deal with at the moment. As ever, I’m helped by poetry—and by sharing it; and by the conversations it stimulates. For some reason this poem in particular has been calling me over the last few days. Perhaps ‘The Gate‘ by Marie Howe might be helpful for you too. Let me know.

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poetry appreciation

the condition of music

Dec 10, 2020 #art, #Auden, #ballad, #content, #experience, #folk tale, #form, #innocence, #lyric, #meaning, #Pater, #Philip Larkin, #reader response, #Walter Pater, #WH Auden by Lucy Crispin

Walter Pater says somewhere or other, I forget where, that “All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music”. He continues, “For while in all other kinds of art it is possible to distinguish the matter from the form, and the understanding can always make this distinction, yet it is the constant effort of art to obliterate it.” What I take from this is something about the relationship between form and content: how in the best poems the equation is not form plus content = meaning, but form times content = impact/connection/experience. And this week’s poem seems to me to be one which ‘aspires’ successfully. Have a read of ‘As I Walked Out One Evening‘ by Auden, and see what you think.

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