the attempts of people to
explain it. I quite agree with him there though not in his too sweeping theory
of poetry. To explain that poem is to murder it and dissect the corpse. One
can’t explain it, one can only feel and live the truth behind it.Sri Aurobindo
Letters on Poetry and Art
SABCL - Volume 27
Part 3. Literature, Art, Beauty and Yoga
Section 1. Appreciation of Poetry and the Arts
Appreciation of Poetry
Housman’s Poetics [2]
Read the remarks of Housman on the magnificent poem of
Blake he quotes in full [“My Spectre around me night and
day”] and the attempts of people to
explain it. I quite agree with him there though not in his too sweeping theory
of poetry. To explain that poem is to murder it and dissect the corpse. One
can’t explain it, one can only feel and live the truth behind it.
3 December 1936