Frederick thanks for that helps this old head see what you are trying to do
Cheers Patrick
-----Original Message-----
From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Frederick Pollack
Sent: 11 June 2008 17:20
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: "Ancient Scroll"
----- Original Message -----
From: "Patrick McManus" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 10:28 AM
Subject: Re: "Ancient Scroll"
> Well for me this has a fairy tale feel but I am not sure what the message
> is
> Cheers P
>
The title and diction might cue one, not only to fairy tales, but to the
language of Asian "wisdom-literature" from various traditions. The image of
a poet and a philosopher in a "pavilion" in a landscape should suggest the
subject-matter of traditional Chinese painting (often on scrolls). The
ideology expressed by the philosopher, however, is entirely European. It
seems to be that of Idealists like Fichte, for whom the mind constitutes
rather than reflects reality. This conflict between the style and content
of the poem is, I think, fun. The "miracle" at the end accentuates this
conflict; the mountain must bow to the poet's will and/or imagination.
Stevens uses the same conceit in many poems, though with gentler, more
genial, more cryptic images (the jar on a hilltop in Tennessee, etc.) Let
me stress that I love Chinese and Japanese scroll-paintings (though I
suddenly get very bored with them), and wanted to do my own, but with my own
perverse input.
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