CD Lewis / The Poet's Way of Knowledge

Yellowbelle DuaquiBSD-CLA, DLSU

poetry is "a possible way of gaining and imparting knowledge"

What is poetry?what is it for?

bounded by two extremes1. poetry as an end (as a goal)2. poetry as a means (way to achieve

it)1890s: "Poetry should be ... from the factual and the topical"

conveying the quality or value of an experience is a contribution to knowledgemental events symbolized in poems are observed facts of human behaviora poem is not just embodiments of a complex of experiences; it is an experienceoffers a different kind of knowing from case-histories

Aristotle: poetry as mimesis (mimicry)IA Richards: poetry makes us remember how we feltTR Henn: poetry seeks to express a peculiar fusion of ideas and emotions

"The distinction between qualitative and quantitative defines the separate fields of science and poetry: the emphasis on communicability shows the common interest of the two."(one is empirical, other is based on experience)many poets aim to clarify their experiences (through science)poetry as a reordering of experience or a process by which symbolic value of memories is discovered

poetry as corrective and complementary to science

a way of scaling down scientific statements into comprehensible ones

What can poetry do?