In a recent piece, prompted by Eliot’s line ‘Humankind cannot bear very much reality’ I suggested that we have constructed a carapace that protects us from Reality much as a spacesuit protects an astronaut or a bathysphere a deep-sea explorer. This in itself is an instance of how metaphor works as a tool of thought … Continue reading The Exploration of Inner Space II : by way of metaphor
Tag: poetry
Switching sides: a confession
When I was younger - more than quarter of a century younger - I did something that I now think was wrong, though I didn’t at the time. I was asked to cover someone’s Higher English evening class and found that they were studying Wordsworth’s poem that begins ‘Up! up! my friend, and quit your … Continue reading Switching sides: a confession
Whistling in the Dark
Well, and if you were in utter darkness and heard someone whistle a few bars, the merest snatch of music - would your heart not lift? Your world would be transformed.
A Way of Thinking
Poetry is a way of thinking. By ‘poetry’ I mean not just poetry but everything that works in a similar fashion - by imagination and instinct - such as music and art generally (it’s handy to remember that ‘poetry’ just means ‘making’) - and by ‘thinking’ I mean rather more than the narrow sense in … Continue reading A Way of Thinking
COMPLEAT TROWZER 