Deadly serious aesthetic and intellectual purpose is crucial - even when being silly or drifting, like O'Hara. No pomposity, windiness, flabbiness. No regurgitation of form in a safe, domestic context.
Came across some brilliant Coleridge quotations on Milton last night, including:
In the Paradise Lost — indeed in every one of his poems — it is Milton himself whom you see; his Satan, his Adam, his Raphael, almost his Eve — all are John Milton; and it is a sense of this intense egotism that gives me the greatest pleasure in reading Milton's works. The egotism of such a man is a revelation of spirit.
I'd like for you to choose a pretty pair;
A poem that shows the ode at its most fair,
Another at its worst. So concentrate;
Forget your essay - fascism can wait!
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