Moreover, while the scrutinizing effect that comes with light (and poetry) can feel overwhelming at first, it ultimately makes one's fears diminish, so that they lose the ability to control the fearful person's thoughts and actions. One cannot exist, or at least cannot flourish, without the other. Poetry, in fact, is an essential source of thoughts, just as feelings are an essential source of ideas. Light, here, is a metaphorical representation of poetry, which also has the power to illuminate, shift perception, and make change possible. The "quality of light through which we scrutinize our lives" has an enormous effect both on how we experience our lives and how we alter them. Lorde begins this short essay with a symbolic comparison between poetry and light.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |