"The Riddle of Poetry" Thoughts

This is one of those pieces with which I have sought to keep an open mind. One of my greatest fears with literature is spitting forth pre-conditioned responses out of genuine conditioning or a sense of arrogant correctness. This is a new perspective of poetry for which I would like to adopt and understanding.

Firstly, I certainly approve of any man's thoughts with the humility to say that he offers no answers, bearing witness to something far greater than himself. My world was thoroughly disturbed with his discussions on the unimportance of the classics themselves in favor of the experiences any poetic art is capable of evoking. As a scholastic warrior in the conflict between antiquity and modernity, it took some effort to listen to what the author had to offer here, and it is a rather inspiring message. At least he says he hopes he is wrong. I'm revisiting poems that have seemed of gravity to me previously under this idea that "Art happens."

His point about language constantly shifting is quite valid, and the evolution of language is of particular interest to me, while still not being something I an go off on a pre-conditioned tangent about. Being a Latin fanatic, how all these barbaric languages came to be from a logical and perfect tongue is quite interesting. Is there a particular reason languages change? My main theory has always been isolation, the Dark Ages had plenty of that, but we've lost that with the internet so language is growing more standardized. But the peculiarities the author point out raise further questions, I hope to discuss this in some class, whether English, Latin, or History.

The author treads on dangerous ground discussing the Holy Ghost and It's influence on writing, he seems to imply that it is inherent as the Jungian subconscious as opposed to a transcendental divine, which while something I completely agree with is certainly a potential for offense among the close-minded God-fearers. Most interesting though, was his attempt to define poetry, and notes on our ability to define it as opposed to all other manner of things both similar and abstract. The thoughts that result from that is why these things are fundamental to our existence, poetry is not a pure form of human expression, it must be filtered, refined, sculpted, rather than felt. Anything such as that is not a natural part of the human mind. It, like certain aspects of culture and academic are build in-between minds, passed on from one generation to the next, rather than being inherent.