{Poetry as Transformation [(2)]*}[10th August 1990]

[Redbook7:207][19900810.1217]{Poetry as Transformation [(2)]*}[10th August 1990]

19900810.1217

*‘It is, I think, true to say that all poems are dramatic monologues to some extent. A poem is not merely a portrait, however. The personality it presents is involved in an act of perception. Moreover, we, in sharing the act of perception – that is to say, in following the poem’s explicit message – become ourselves at one with the personality which perceives; thus the kind of knowledge that a poem gives us is differs from other kinds of knowledge in having a certain “inwardness”. We do not recognize, we participate; reading a poem is an act of temporary personal transformation.

‘In the pure lyric, this act of transformation is the main factor in our enjoyment. Our sensibility is broadened because we have taken on the sensibility of someone else, and have learnt new attitudes from “the inside”.... But an act of perception does need an object. Something has to be perceived, and, frequently, that which is perceived is so important as to make the “inwardness” of our perception rather a “way of knowing” than the greater part of the knowledge itself.’**

*[[Redbook7:141][19900604:0010]{Poetry as Transformation}[4th June 1990] →; &

[Redbook7:142][19900613:0840]{Poetry (Extracts)}[13th June 1990]ff to [Redbook7:148][19900613:0840m]{Poetry (Extracts) [continued (13)]}[13th June 1990],] 148→

**T[each] Y[ourself] ‘Poetry’, Robin Skelton (1963): 136-7.

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