June 07, 2010

Poetry at its Best


I was reading the Oxford Companion to Philosophy pool-side this weekend and came across this cool, condensed description of poetry ...


Distinctive of poetry at its best is an 'all-in', maximally dense, simultaneous deployment of linguistic recourses­- sound and rhythm as well as sense, the bringing-together of numerous strands of meaning, through metaphors and other figures, through ambiguities (often unresolved), controlled associations and recourses, allusions: all of these contributing to a well-integrated, unified effect.


This companion to philosophy is one of the best books I've read pertaining to that field (the best one of all times, however, and one I adamantly encourage everyone to read, is Bertrand Russell's History Western Philosophy).

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The Poets

As of April 9th, 2010