This is what I’m linking to today, but only because the author quotes Auden on the need to “watch what is always the great danger with any ‘surrealistic’ style, namely of confusing authentic nonlogical relations which arouse wonder with accidental ones which arouse mere surprise and in the end fatigue.”
Nonlogical relations. I know there are lots of them out there in contemporary poetry, but I had not ever considered them as such or that they might be divided into these two categories.
Authentic versus accidental. And arousing wonder versus arousing mere surprise followed by fatigue.
Hm.
Yes, that’s a good way of putting it. It’s about the surrealism reaching to the heart of things rather than skating on the surface. Of course, knowing this should happen doesn’t make it any easier to achieve.
Don’t know if you’ve read Koch on Mayakovsky?
Hm, yes. Depth versus superficiality. A helpful qualifier and interesting post — thanks, Rob.