Monday, November 29, 2004

metalogos two

Percy Bysshe Shelley in Defence of Poetry (1821):
Their language is vitally metaphorical; that is it marks the before unapprehended relations of things, and perpetuates their apprehension, until the words which re present them become through time signs for portions and classes of thoughts, instead of pictures of integral thoughts; and then, if no new poets should arise to create afresh the associations which have been thus disorganized, language will be dead to all the nobler purposes of human intercourse.

1 comment:

Dave said...

Good, but I actually liked "metalogos one" better.

I had to read the first line here twice. The first time I thought it said "virally metaphorical," but realized that didn't sound very Shellian.