ENGL 251A Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Mimesis, Negative Capability

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: English
• Course: ENGL 251A
• Professor: David- Antoine Williams

Document Summary

Poets are imitators of truth, not the actual truth. The world is full of beds, but there is only one ideal idea of a bed that was created by god. Every time a carpenter makes a bed, they make it based on this idea, but it is a different bed every time. Painters can also make a bed , but it is not a real bed, because it is one more time removed from the true essence of bed. You cannot sleep on a painting of a bed, and it is only one perception of a bed (i. e. you cannot visualize it from various angles or places surrounding or on it). Poets are doing the same thing as painters. Poetry is not useful for society; it shows no utility in the past. Poetry enflames passions and emotions that we deem inappropriate by reason. The idea that reason is separate from emotion and emotion must be squashed by reason is debatable.