How little divides us finally from Longinus and his classic work on the sublime, written in the early years of our era. The literary encyclopedia reminds us that the sublime is not a formal feature of a work and can’t be defined by way of rhetorical categories. It is instead “a spark that leaps from the soul of the writer to the soul of the reader.” Has so much really changed? Don’t we still wait greedily for that spark?
Surely we don’t go to poetry for sarcasm or irony, for critical distance, learned dialectics or clever jokes. These worthy qualities and forms perform splendidly in their proper place—in an essay, a scholarly tract, a broadside in an opposition newspaper. In poetry, though, we seek the vision, the fire, the flame that accompanies spiritual revelation. In short, from poetry we expect poetry.
—Adam Zagajewski, title essay, A Defense of Ardor (FSG, 2002), translated by Clare Cavanaugh
4 comments:
With all due respect to a greater mind than my own, dismissing irony and distance from spiritual revelation suggests a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of things. Or maybe he meant some kind of religious revelation? As our world always was and will be lost, so poetry is always a ghost of itself, better known by not being known, that which returns and that which does not. And so forth. I think I will go for a swim.
btw, j, nice blog.
AZ is certainly arguing the 'corrective case' for much of what he sees as post-modernist failure of will. It's a good essay as a whole, I believe. When I take a lot of notes in the course of reading a piece, I know I'm in a thrall of a learned person.
I see you are from CT. I'm in West Hartford. Thanks for virtually visiting here.
It's funny. I've read a few things in the past 36 hours that made me realize I was reading that quote too narrowly. Serves me right for not tracking down the full context before commenting. A necessary corrective case, I'd have to agree.
Are you the James associated with The Friends & Enemies of Wallace Stevens? I was close to becoming a member this year. Maybe next. I'm in Newtown.
I'm am the James (or Jim) of the Friends & Enemies of W.S. We held our Elizabeth Park Rose Garden Reading a couple of weeks ago. Elizabeth Willis and Susan Howe read. And in the fall (first Sat. in Nov.) we'll be having Robert Pinsky as our featured speaker at the WS Birthday Bash at the Hartford Public Library.
Newtown (or thereabouts) is home the Wednesday Night Poetry Series, I know.
I also run a feading series in Hartford CT, called WordForge.
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