Tuesday, 24 May 2011

Metaphysical

"The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together; nature and art are ransacked for illustrations, comparisons, and allusions; their learning instructs, and their subtlety surprises; but the reader commonly thinks his improvement dearly bought and, though he sometimes admires, is seldom pleased.”

Dr. Samuel Johnson, Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, ‘Cowley’ (1781)