Saturday, March 14, 2009

Edmund Burke (1729-97)


This is the week to celebrate all that is Irish. Today I have been re-reading The Dubliners and this evening listening to Christy Moore on Georgia Public Radio's The Green Island Radio show out of Savannah. So for something a little different, I offer a suggested reading for those who love language from Edmund Burke's A PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY INTO THE ORIGIN OF OUR IDEAS OF THE SUBLIME AND BEAUTIFUL, Part V: Sections VI & VII wherein he explores "How WORDS influence the passions" and "POETRY not strictly an imitative art." This work is very rich in ideas on the nature of poetry, both reading it and creating it. I found it in my three volume set of THE FIELD DAY ANTHOLOGY OF IRISH WRITING.

About Me

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Recreational scholar, former high school and junior college English teacher. Animal lover (especially horses, dogs, and people), lives in the South, sometimes poet and essayist... "Ireland, Scotland, Britain, and Wales...I can hear those ancient voices calling..." Van Morrison from Celtic Heartbeat