We centered upon a recurring motif today: that of borrowing, or stealing if one wishes to be more blunt. Eliot stole the via negativa section of "East Coker" from St. John of the Cross, just as David Malouf in his most recent novel Ransom steals from The Dry Salvages in the opening sentance: "The sea has many voices." This is obviously a ubiquitous element within literature. But then again maybe it isn't "Stealing" so much as different definition.

In regard to Walter Pater's notion of the Aesthetic Hero, for instance, is he stealing from John Keats, with his notion of negative capability(the state where mysteries are no longer troublesome, but accepted by taking everything in)? And is Henry James stealing from both Pater and Keats by talking about the ideal person being "one on whom nothing is lost"? And is Wallace Stevens stealing from all of them by writing about a "figure of capable imagination"(from his poem Mrs. Alfred Uruguay)? Or are they all taking about the same thing, just in slightly different ways?

The thing is you need to use your brain to be an Aesthetic Hero, in order to see things the way that they ought to be perceived. Taylor and Kevin are both on the right road, if not already there, in their readings of Disillusionment at 10:00 and Gerard Manley Hopkins, respectively. I've gotta say I liked The Windhover well enough when I read it, but it took hearing it recited for the full impact of the words and the imagery to really hit home; you realize just how ecstatic it really is. As Kevin said, "I've never read anybody that uses so many exclaimation points before."

And I gotta say I did not know that Wreck of the Deutshland was Gerard Manley Hopkin's longest poem, or that their was a book of Wallace Stevens' poems for children. Learn something new everyday.