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Full Idea
Wallace Stevens is the greatest philosophical poet of the twentieth century in the English language - full stop - in my humble opinion.
Gist of Idea
Wallace Stevens is the greatest philosophical poet of the twentieth century in English
Source
Simon Critchley (Impossible Objects: interviews [2012], 6)
Book Ref
Critchley,Simon: 'Impossible Objects: interviews' [Politty 2012], p.100
A Reaction
I include this because I tend to agree, and love Stevens. Hear recordings of him reading. I once mentioned Stevens in a conversation with Ted Hughes, and he just shrugged and said Stevens 'wasn't much of a poet'. Wrong.
16565 | Without the surface decoration, poetry shows only appearances and nothing of what is real [Plato] |
16566 | Poetry is more philosophic than history, as it concerns universals, not particulars [Aristotle] |
20873 | Tragedies are versified sufferings of people impressed by externals [Epictetus] |
23364 | Homer wrote to show that the most blessed men can be ruined by poor judgement [Epictetus] |
22030 | For poets free choice is supreme [Schlegel,F] |
22341 | Literature is the most important aspect of culture, because it teaches understanding of living [Murdoch] |
21939 | The author function of any text is a plurality of selves [Foucault, by Gutting] |
9814 | All great poetry is engaged in rivalry with mathematics [Badiou] |
21007 | Storytelling is never neutral; some features of the world must be emphasised [Nussbaum] |
20454 | Wallace Stevens is the greatest philosophical poet of the twentieth century in English [Critchley] |
20927 | The hermeneutic circle is between the reader's self-understanding, and the world of the text [Zimmermann,J] |