"The Good casts out the Bad...
The warty giant and witch
Get sealed in doorless jails
And the match-girl strikes it rich."
- "It Out-Herods Herod. Pray You, Avoid It."
I think, a lot of times, poetry defies description. (which makes blogging about it kind of difficult.) It hits something baser than our lexicon. It is understood through something more human than language, even though its mode is words. The balance of emotion and purpose and experience and accessibility and gravity and a million other things is so precarious. Part of the wonder of poetry, for me, is how overwhelming solving that impossible equation is.
You should buy this book just to read this poem. It is haunting and beautiful and solves the equation perfectly.
*From The Poets Laureate Anthology
, published by W.W. Norton in association with the Library of Congress. Poem copyright Anthony Hecht.
The warty giant and witch
Get sealed in doorless jails
And the match-girl strikes it rich."
- "It Out-Herods Herod. Pray You, Avoid It."
I think, a lot of times, poetry defies description. (which makes blogging about it kind of difficult.) It hits something baser than our lexicon. It is understood through something more human than language, even though its mode is words. The balance of emotion and purpose and experience and accessibility and gravity and a million other things is so precarious. Part of the wonder of poetry, for me, is how overwhelming solving that impossible equation is.
You should buy this book just to read this poem. It is haunting and beautiful and solves the equation perfectly.
*From The Poets Laureate Anthology
, published by W.W. Norton in association with the Library of Congress. Poem copyright Anthony Hecht.
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