Thursday, March 17, 2011

Heaney's poetics.

From Seamus Heaney's "Feeling into Words," expressing his view of poetry, invites us to see:

"...poetry as divination, poetry as revelation of the self to the self, as restoration of the culture to itself; poems as elements of continuity, with the aura and authenticity of archeological finds, where the buried shard has an importance that is not diminished by the importance of the buried city; poetry as a dig, a dig for finds that end up being plants...

Finding a voice means that you can get your own feeling into your own words and that your words have the feel of you about them; and I believe that it may not even be a metaphor, for a poetic voice is probably very intimately connected with the poet's natural voice, the voice that he hears as the ideal speaker of the lines he is making up...

Traditionally an oracle speaks in riddles, yielding its truths in disguise, offering its insights cunningly. And in the practice of poetry, there is corresponding occasion of disguise, a protean, chameleon moment when the lump in the throat takes protective colouring in the new element of thought..."

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