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PART I: Realizing Metaphors, Situating Pushkin
- University of Wisconsin Press
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PART I ~ Realizing Metaphors, Situating Pushkin Metaphorical thought in Dante, as in all true poetry, is accomplished with the aid ofa property ofpoetic material that I suggest we might call reversibility or recurrence . The development ofa metaphor can be called development only in a provisional sense. And indeed, imagine an airplane that in full flight designs and launches another airplane (disregarding the technical impossibility ofthis). In just the same way, this flying machine, though absorbed in its own flight, nonetheless succeeds in assembling and launching a third. To make my comparison even more precise, let me add that the assembly and launching ofthese technically inconceivable new machines produced during flight is not an ancillary or secondary function of the flying machine, but is a most necessary appurtenance and part ofthe flight itself, and is no less a condition of its possibility than the manipulability ofthe steering unit or the unimpaired functioning ofthe motor. - Osip Mandelstam, Conversation about Dante A survey taken in April [1997], National Poetry Month, by the Poets International Society, a publishing house specializing in poetry, has found that 97 percent ofAmericans can't name the poet laureate (Robert Pinsky). When asked to name contemporary poets, the average person could name between zero and one. - Wisconsin State Journal, 26 May 1997 (Pushkin's birthday [Old Style]) Copyrighted Material Copyrighted Material ...