Abstract

The Gentleman of Shalott
Walton, Eda Lou | October 24, 1936 issue

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This article focuses on the book "Time and the Rock. Preludes to Definition," by Conrad Aiken. The will to die may generate great poetry, but the continuous pose of dying is boring and morbid. Any poem must resolve some conflict stated or implied. Poet T.S. Eliot knew this when in his poems of irresolution he used the dramatic "blackout" at the end of a scene having implied connections with another scene. Poetry, in other words, cannot be a continuous "prelude to definition", it must, if only for the moment, define. This is just what Aiken's poetry does not do.

See Also:

TIME & the Rock. Preludes to Definition (Book); AIKEN, Conrad, 1889-1973; POETRY; STYLE, Literary; ELIOT, T. S. (Thomas Stearns), 1888-1965; POETS
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