*Cosmic Connections*

 [[{“value”:”The author is Charles Taylor (yes, the Charles Taylor) and the subtitle is Poetry in the Age of Disenchantment.  This book is a very good introduction to romanticism, and also to the poetry of romanticism, noting that its degree of originality may depend on how much you already know.  I liked the chapters on Rilke
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The author is Charles Taylor (yes, the Charles Taylor) and the subtitle is Poetry in the Age of Disenchantment.  This book is a very good introduction to romanticism, and also to the poetry of romanticism, noting that its degree of originality may depend on how much you already know.  I liked the chapters on Rilke and Mallarme best, here is one excerpt:

It follows that for Rilke, our full capacity to Praise can only be realized if we take account of the standpoint of the dead.  The medium of Preisen is Gesang [song].  thus the voice which most fully carries this song would have to be that of the gold Orpheus, who moves in both realms, that of the living and that of the dead.

And the sonnet is the medium.  As its name suggests, it is a poetic form which asks to be heard, and not only read on the page.  These two modes of reception are essential to all poetry, but in the sonnet the musical dimension becomes the most important avenue to the message.

So a praise-song from both sides, that of the dead, as well as the living.  They call on Orpheus, the singer-god who moves between the two realms.  Hence the Sonnets to Orpheus.

I am very glad to see that Taylor is still at it, and 640 pp. at that.  Furthermore, this book is (unintentionally?) a good means for thinking about just how much deculturation has taken place.

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