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Unbearable lightness: some modern instances in Auden, Stevens and Eliot

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Unbearable lightness: some modern instances in Auden, Stevens and Eliot. / Sharpe, Tony.
In: Romanticism, Vol. 22, No. 3, 10.2016, p. 312-321.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

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Sharpe T. Unbearable lightness: some modern instances in Auden, Stevens and Eliot. Romanticism. 2016 Oct;22(3):312-321. Epub 2016 Sept 19. doi: 10.3366/rom.2016.0292

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Sharpe, Tony. / Unbearable lightness : some modern instances in Auden, Stevens and Eliot. In: Romanticism. 2016 ; Vol. 22, No. 3. pp. 312-321.

Bibtex

@article{3ccdf0aaef294a2d898ff1c480b253e3,
title = "Unbearable lightness: some modern instances in Auden, Stevens and Eliot",
abstract = "In this essay I examine the implicit paradox that, although in conventional consideration {\textquoteleft}light{\textquoteright} is good and {\textquoteleft}darkness{\textquoteright}, by antithesis, bad, the antithesis itself implies interconnection and, especially in poetry, the evocation of light can equally imply the possibility of darkness.Further, I suggest that poets have found intermediate or qualified illumination to be a more productive resource than light unmoderated by shadow, whose erasure of uncertainty is potentially disabling. My principal examples are drawn from modern poetry, in W. H. Auden, Wallace Stevens and T. S. Eliot, preceded by a consideration of some nineteenth-century precursors; by means of these I show how their verse takes animation from the transient and transitional aspects of light, rather than from its plenitude. The implications of this, in a culture shaped by traditional Christian associations between {\textquoteleft}God{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft}light{\textquoteright}, are suggestive throughout the essay, but become especially resonant in the case of Eliot{\textquoteright}s overtly Christian poetry.",
author = "Tony Sharpe",
note = "This article has been accepted for publication by Edinburgh University Press in Romanticism, http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/rom.2016.0292",
year = "2016",
month = oct,
doi = "10.3366/rom.2016.0292",
language = "English",
volume = "22",
pages = "312--321",
journal = "Romanticism",
issn = "1354-991X",
publisher = "Edinburgh University Press",
number = "3",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Unbearable lightness

T2 - some modern instances in Auden, Stevens and Eliot

AU - Sharpe, Tony

N1 - This article has been accepted for publication by Edinburgh University Press in Romanticism, http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/rom.2016.0292

PY - 2016/10

Y1 - 2016/10

N2 - In this essay I examine the implicit paradox that, although in conventional consideration ‘light’ is good and ‘darkness’, by antithesis, bad, the antithesis itself implies interconnection and, especially in poetry, the evocation of light can equally imply the possibility of darkness.Further, I suggest that poets have found intermediate or qualified illumination to be a more productive resource than light unmoderated by shadow, whose erasure of uncertainty is potentially disabling. My principal examples are drawn from modern poetry, in W. H. Auden, Wallace Stevens and T. S. Eliot, preceded by a consideration of some nineteenth-century precursors; by means of these I show how their verse takes animation from the transient and transitional aspects of light, rather than from its plenitude. The implications of this, in a culture shaped by traditional Christian associations between ‘God’ and ‘light’, are suggestive throughout the essay, but become especially resonant in the case of Eliot’s overtly Christian poetry.

AB - In this essay I examine the implicit paradox that, although in conventional consideration ‘light’ is good and ‘darkness’, by antithesis, bad, the antithesis itself implies interconnection and, especially in poetry, the evocation of light can equally imply the possibility of darkness.Further, I suggest that poets have found intermediate or qualified illumination to be a more productive resource than light unmoderated by shadow, whose erasure of uncertainty is potentially disabling. My principal examples are drawn from modern poetry, in W. H. Auden, Wallace Stevens and T. S. Eliot, preceded by a consideration of some nineteenth-century precursors; by means of these I show how their verse takes animation from the transient and transitional aspects of light, rather than from its plenitude. The implications of this, in a culture shaped by traditional Christian associations between ‘God’ and ‘light’, are suggestive throughout the essay, but become especially resonant in the case of Eliot’s overtly Christian poetry.

U2 - 10.3366/rom.2016.0292

DO - 10.3366/rom.2016.0292

M3 - Journal article

VL - 22

SP - 312

EP - 321

JO - Romanticism

JF - Romanticism

SN - 1354-991X

IS - 3

ER -