Thomas Harrison
Thomas Harrison
autonomy effect issue question reading reception topic
With the question of the effect of a poem, the topic of investigation shifts from that of textual autonomy to textual reception - to the issue of what we actually look for or find in reading a poem.
among composer directors far lines musical range scoring
Other, far fewer, directors are more like the composer - conceptualizing the piece, scoring it, distributing its musical lines among a range of registers, chords, and instruments.
directors subjects
Most film directors do not come up with their own subjects or write their own screenplays.
fuse images unlike
Unlike metaphor, metonymy does not try to fuse images together.
function liberate means shatter vehicles words
To liberate words means first to shatter their function as vehicles of idea, memory, hope, or regret.
expect experience series
Experience has ceded to a series of happenings, about which the most we can expect is information.
question remains speaks
Still the question remains of what actually speaks in a poem, if not subjectivity as historically constructed.
art essential form language poetry points
No art form points like poetry to this originality of language as to its essential and abiding concern.
witnesses
As witnesses that the things were not done in a corner.
advent conveys message poem poetry
A poem conveys not a message so much as the provenance of a message, an advent of sense.
age appear both deep dwelling experience history notion recorded structure
In an age where history is recorded on T-shirts, the very notion of dwelling on the deep structure of an experience has come to appear both arcane and archaic.
decades given lyric recent symbolic toward
In recent decades this symbolic or metaphorical lyric has given way to one which leans toward metonymy.
champions cup date event germans jacket weeks
A jacket commemorating the Germans as champions of the 1990 World Cup is out of date two weeks after the event has passed.