Good First Lines

Good first lines from Yvor Winters's criticism:

"Before attempting to elucidate or to criticize a poetry so difficult and evasive as that of the best moderns, it would appear wise to summarize as clearly as possible those qualities for which one looks in a poem. We may say that a poem in the first place should offer us new perceptions, not only of the exterior universe, but of human experience as well; it should add, in other words, to what we have already seen. This is the elementary function for the reader."

Those are the fine opening sentences of "The Morality of Poetry, from Primitivism and Decadence. which was republished in In Defense of Reason. And to that I say, "Amen."

I've been out of regular circulation here for quite a while, but I've been building up the energy for another run at this blog. We'll see what comes about.