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Article: The poem as journey.
- Article from:
- The Southern Review
- Article date:
- March 22, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 Louisiana State University. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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"I AM WRITING TO YOU from a far-off country," "I am writing to you from the end of the world," Henri Michaux, the French Surrealist poet, says. Precisely. Most, if not all, good poems come from that place, or those two places if they have become separated by intent or degree. Like the continents and like imagination, they started as one mass, but both have devolved to a movable attitude. Dante wrote from the Empyrean, a far-off country, indeed. Others write from next door, which often can be the end of the world.
So many journeys. So many destinations. Orpheus descending through the byways and back canals of the human body, Ulysses and Aeneas blown to and from ...