OBSCURITY AND POETRY.[1]
By Joseph Plunkett
There are two kinds of obscurity—the obscurity of Art and the obscurity of Nature. They may be called the obscurity of mist and the obscurity of mystery. They have nothing in common. They are as opposed as the poles.
A thing may be hidden by Art in two ways. It may be overlaid with irrelevancies, or its expression may be restrained to the point of poverty. The effect is the same. The essentials are hidden. In Nature also (but by Nature we mean not so much apparent Nature as real Nature) there are two ways by which things may be hidden. They may become so common as not to be regarded, or they may be so uncommon as not to permit regard. They may be as universal as light or as unique as the sun. Observation involves comparison, and that which is entirely universal or absolutely unique—or both—cannot be compared with anything.
- ↑ From a Critical Notice of Verses which appeared in "The Irish Review," February, 1914, Collected Poems by Æ., and Lyrical Poems by Thomas MacDonagh.
