[New-Poetry] Toads

[Skip Fox]

Moore sometimes put quotation marks around phrases she's invented, if I
remember correctly. If that is what happens here, " imaginary gardens with
real toads in them," she could have seen the combined image as a shorthand
for the remainder of Yeat's sentence when he goes on to describe the poet as
one who "because he believed that the figures seen by the mind's eye, when
exalted by inspiration, were 'eternal existences,' symbols of divine
essences, . . . hated every grace of style that might obscure their
lineaments." If so (and putting the quotation marks around the second phrase
as though she's continuing the original thought/speaker), then her
commentary-shorthand on Yeats might be seen as quirky by some, properly
deflating by others.

 

A bit supposition heavy, but . . .

 

-----Original Message-----
From: new-poetry-bounces at wiz.cath.vt.edu
[mailto:new-poetry-bounces at wiz.cath.vt.edu] On Behalf Of David Graham
Sent: Monday, July 02, 2007 1:59 PM
To: NewPoetry: Contemporary Poetry News &Views
Subject: [New-Poetry] Toads

 

 

 

On Jul 2, 2007, at 2:46 PM, Bob Grumman wrote:

The toads are a quotation from a Yeats essay, actually, and I once read it
in the essay of its origin, but never was able to find it again.

 

--Bob G. 

==============

 

I'm skeptical.  The phrase "literalists of the imagination" Moore ascribes
to Yeats, but not the toads.  She was typically very scrupulous about
acknowledging her borrowings.  

 

The Yeats is from *Ideas of Good and Evil*:  "The limitation of his view was
from the very intensity of his vision; he was a too literal realist of
imagination, as others are of nature...."  He's discussing Blake's
illustrations of Dante.

 

 

 

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