Friday, April 17, 2009

a crowd of grand and confused images



Poetry is, therefore, superior to painting as a means of raising the passions, although the latter gives the clearest images. The fact is, that our ignorance of things causes all our admiration, and chiefly excites our passions. In great passages of Milton the mind is hurried out of itself by a crowd of grand and confused images, which affect because they are crowded and confused. The images of poetry are always obscure. To see a thing distinctly is to see its bounds, and cut it off from infinity. A clear idea is another name for a little idea.


"Sublime and Beautiful," Edmund Burke

[Damen Avenue below Division Street]

About Me

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Blog Archive