Critics of Puritan Poetry

“Subsequent critics have done just that and have constructed a variety of theories to account for the Puritans’ failure to write poetry. Usually in works centered on other subjects, these critics have offered major statements on Puritan poetry. Since so many such statements exist and since even modern critics of Puritan poetry have taken little …

Aesthetic Vulnerability

“We must risk being taken in, if we are to get anything. The best safeguard against bad literature is a full experience of good; just as a real and affectionate acquaintance with honest people gives a better protection against rogues than a habitual distrust of everyone” (C.S. Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism, p. 94).

Art Is Not A Tupperware Container for Truth

“It is this omnipresent flavour of feel that makes bad inventions so mawkish and suffocating, and good ones so tonic. The good ones allow us temporarily to share a sort of passionate sanity. And we may also—which is less important—expect to find in them many psychological truths and profound, at least profoundly felt, reflections. But …