Judgement can only follow and act of sympathy and understanding, and to let our appreciation grow outwards from that which immediately appeals to us is both wiser and more enjoyable than to echo the judgements of others or to restrict and sour our appreciation by hastily attacking anything which at first seems difficult or irritating.
—
Michael Roberts’ introduction to the first edition of the Faber Book of Modern Verse is one of the finest essays I’ve ever come across on what it means to be a poet and, in parts, what it means to be a conscious reader.
Also, this Shelley quote is great:
“Poetry differs in this respect from logic, that it is not subject to the control of the active powers of the mind, and that its birth and recurrence have no necessary connexion with consciousness or will.”
One to keep in mind when dumbness strikes.
