Customer Reviews

The Witness of Poetry (Charles Eliot Norton Lectures)

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I first bought this book for a class in 1987. I have since bought it again and again somewhere around 12 times. The "mistake" I make is that I lend it to a friend and they fall in love with it and with Milosz too and then, I just let them keep it and I buy it again because I understand. To say that this book transformed the way I look at poetry and art as a whole is an understatement. It should be a core component of any discussion of 20th century aesthetics. It's a masterpiece.

"I have titled this book _The Witness of Poetry_ notbecause we witness it, but because it witnesses us," Miloszsays. This Nobel Laureate who's been around the block is believable when he says it looks like we are in big trouble. That we are a loathsome and self-loathing, despairing, cruel race isn't really news, but Milosz goes further and tells us convincingly how we got to be such [people]. If you follow him this far, you'll want to read on to see what advice he offers before it all goes up the spout (or we simply turn into zombies). So.... either read this short "poetics" and then his tiny book _Road-Side Dog_, or read _Road-Side Dog_ (maybe start with "Beautiful Girl") and then read the _Witness of Poetry_. Pretty amazing guy. -- Oh, and I don't think there'll be a movie.