What is poetry which does not save
Nations or people?
A connivance with official lies,
A song of drunkards whose throats will be cut in a moment,
Readings for sophomore girls.
That I wanted good poetry without knowing it,
That I discovered, late, its salutary aim,
In this and only this I find salvation
Czeslaw Milosz, lines from dedication
heres S. arguing with me that east european poetry might have its own individual characteristics but reading the poems from that region you feel as you feel while reading any other good poem...a quivering of sorts...he then turned to talk a little about czeslaw milosz as an exemplar
"sample this..i think milosz is good...his writings have that incisive quality...his prose especially....reading captive mind was like reading a textbook of logic..his talking about things in that manner..and then you approach his poetry..he no longer operates within the confines of logic..it is arational..not irrational...but arational....not bound by reason that can be located in space and time..in the way the most beautiful things are...no longer burdened by the signs and the symbolisms..it acquires a universal character...that is no longer east european..or post world war 2.. or communist-era..in fact it is outside history...totally untouched by the vagaries of history..yet it can not be anything but a product of his personal history..that is what makes it all the more fascinating..
Nations or people?
A connivance with official lies,
A song of drunkards whose throats will be cut in a moment,
Readings for sophomore girls.
That I wanted good poetry without knowing it,
That I discovered, late, its salutary aim,
In this and only this I find salvation
Czeslaw Milosz, lines from dedication
heres S. arguing with me that east european poetry might have its own individual characteristics but reading the poems from that region you feel as you feel while reading any other good poem...a quivering of sorts...he then turned to talk a little about czeslaw milosz as an exemplar
"sample this..i think milosz is good...his writings have that incisive quality...his prose especially....reading captive mind was like reading a textbook of logic..his talking about things in that manner..and then you approach his poetry..he no longer operates within the confines of logic..it is arational..not irrational...but arational....not bound by reason that can be located in space and time..in the way the most beautiful things are...no longer burdened by the signs and the symbolisms..it acquires a universal character...that is no longer east european..or post world war 2.. or communist-era..in fact it is outside history...totally untouched by the vagaries of history..yet it can not be anything but a product of his personal history..that is what makes it all the more fascinating..
but in the end..milosz is good.." (S. in a conversation with me, 2007)
1 comment:
well written post.. and titled.
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