The arts generally have had to recognize Modernism - how should poetry escape? John Crowe Ransom More Quotes by John Crowe Ransom More Quotes From John Crowe Ransom When critics are waiting to pounce upon poetic style on exactly the same grounds as if it were prose, the poets tremble. John Crowe Ransom ransomstylewaiting The image cannot be dispossessed of a primordial freshness, which idea can never claim. An idea is derivative and tamed. The imageis in the natural or wild state, and it has to be discovered there, not put there, obeying its own law and none of ours. We think we can lay hold of image and take it captive, but the docile captive is not the real image but only the idea, which is the image with its character beaten out of it. John Crowe Ransom realcharacterthinking God have mercy on the sinner Who must write with no dinner, No gravy and no grub, No pewter and no pub, No bellyand no bowels, Only consonants and vowels. John Crowe Ransom pewtervowelswriting But we moderns are impatient and destructive. John Crowe Ransom impatientdestructive In all the good Greek of Plato John Crowe Ransom philosophicalplatomen Great lovers lie in Hell, the stubborn ones John Crowe Ransom great-lovekissinglying Would you ascend to Heaven and bodiless dwell? John Crowe Ransom bodywhiteheaven Too much is demanded by the critic, attempted by the poet. John Crowe Ransom ransompoettoo-much And how can poetry stand up against its new conditions? Its position is perfectly precarious. John Crowe Ransom precariousransomposition He can develop sense and style, in the manner of distinguished modern prose, in which event he may be sure that the result will not fall into any objective form. John Crowe Ransom styleobjectivityfall And yet what is Modernism? It is undefined. John Crowe Ransom undefinedmodernism Now between the meanings of words and their sounds there is ordinarily no discoverable relation except one of accident; and it is therefore miraculous, to the mystic, when words which make sense can also make a uniform objective structure of accents and rhymes. John Crowe Ransom rhyminguniformssound Or he can work it out as a metrical and formal exercise, but he will be disappointed in its content. The New Year's prospect fairly chills his daunting breast. John Crowe Ransom new-yearexerciseyears And if no Lethe flows beneath your casement, And when ten years have not brought full effacement, Philosophy was wrong, and you may meet. John Crowe Ransom mayphilosophyyears Two evils, monstrous either one apart, Possessed me, and were long and loath at going: A cry of Absence, Absence, in the heart, And in the wood the furious winter blowing. John Crowe Ransom heartwintertwo It is a miracle of harmony, of the adaptation of the free inner life to the outward necessity of things. John Crowe Ransom adaptationharmonymiracle Do not enforce the tired wolf John Crowe Ransom tiredkingschildren Captain Carpenter rose up in his prime John Crowe Ransom ridingwomenrose I am a lady young in beauty waiting John Crowe Ransom kissingwaitingbeauty I would not knock old fellows in the dust John Crowe Ransom teethdustheart
