Poetry and the Muses Part 4
 

Poetry, as we have discussed in earlier parts of this article, depends upon the Muses and accessing the deeper self or soul within each person; this is not an easy thing to do. In the C18th Lord Chesterfield commented on how an individual could be anything they chose to be, except a 'great poet'. There has always been a recognition in all societies throughout history that the calling of the true poet - like the true prophet - is a rare and difficult one. But it was not always that way; there was a time when all people were naturally poets. This time, in Christian theology, we call pre-lapsarian, meaning before the Fall, the fall of Adam and Eve, and their subsequent expulsion from paradise. One does not, in my view, need to be a Christian to accept this contention; it is just that the Christian myth explains it in a simple way. But the reality is that all peoples throughout all time have been religious and have been involved in religious practices. Why is this? Because it is apparent that the human race at some early point in its history was involved in some calamitous and aboriginal mistake.

أكثر...