In the movie Tom and Viv, about poet T. S. Eliot and his first wife, Vivien Haigh-Wood, Eliot’s character says that poetry is an “escape from emotion.”* When I heard that, a percentage of my brain defaulted to English 2310 (British Poetry from 1798. or something like that) and Wordsworth’s statement that poetry is the “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity.”
Dr, Thomas Brasher said the key to Wordsworth’s phrase is “recollected in tranquillity.”** Poetry written in the grip of emotion usually turns out to be poetry which, reread the next day, must be revised and edited before it is “good.” Wordsworth composed much of his poetry while taking long walks and later dictated it to his to his sister Dorothy.
Everything I write should be recollected in tranquility. That is, I should wait at least twenty-four hours and edit before publishing.
Fiction I edit like crazy for days and days. In one case, for years.
But blog posts—no. I edit like crazy as I write, but that really isn’t adequate.
As a consequence, when I read old posts, I’m often embarrassed.
In twenty-four hours, this one may embarrass me. But I’ll risk it. When it comes to blog posts, my vanity slips a little.
*
*Eliot’s full statement: “Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality.” Which echoes what Wordsworth wrote.
** I remember so much Dr. Brasher said. If you read the work he assigned and listened in class, you remembered. No lectures, just close textual analysis. I took three courses he taught. One of the two best, and most interesting, professors I ever had.
Dr. Brasher also said Eliot was “an intellectual snob,” but I doubt that I will find that on the Internet.
***
Image of Wordsworth by Anonymous via Wikipedia
Image of Blue plaque, 3 Kensington Court Gardens, Kensington, London, home from 1957 until his death in 1965 by Edwardx, licensed under CC SA-BY 4.0. Via Wikipedia
I include no photo of Eliot because those published on Wikipedia their owners assert they are under copyright and have filed claims against Wikipedia.
M. K. Waller 