Thursday, May 19, 2011

carried

Next Wednesday in Subjects of Revolt I'm presenting W.B. Yeats's essay "Magic."

When I saw the essay listed in the syllabus, I thought "magic!" and thought only happy thoughts, about Spring and Lewis or Chesterton or Aslan or Gandalf (or Merlin in That Hideous Strength).

So when I opened up the book and started reading about Yeats and a handful of other curious Englishpeople in a seance, I felt duly chastised for forgetting that mine was the minority perspective.

That said, I am having a horrible time being analytical while reading Yeats, because I keep getting carried away by the cadence of his writing.
"If all who have described events like this have not dreamed, we should rewrite our histories . . ."

"Our souls that were once naked to the winds of heaven are now thickly clad . . ."

"I must commit what merchandise of wisdom I have to this ship of written speech . . ."
Pretty writing is my Achilles' heel.

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