Rarity and the Poetic : The Gesture of Small Flowers

Rarity is a quality by which things flowers, leaves, light, sound fleetingly appear and disappear, leaving in their wake a resonance of something we just thought we had glimpsed. Each of the nine chapters in this book pursues such intimations of rarity in poetic ideas, images, and silences. "Rarity is a quality by which things-flowers, leaves, light, sound-fleetingly appear and disappear, leaving in their wake a resonance of something we just thought we had glimpsed. In this book, the author examines the imaginary or poetic dimensions of rarity. It comes about in the hushed spaces between stanzas, in the pauses between words and lines, in speechlessness. A flower, a silence in a room, a mournfully muttered 'oh, ' thorns and dark seeds, even rugs and tables, a hummingbird, the papery gown of a brother dying, all have rarity. Rilke's phrase 'the gesture of small flowers when they open in the morning' serves as an exemplary image of material and mental rarity."-- Provided by publisher Rarity is a quality by which things - flowers, leaves, light, sound - fleetingly appear and disappear, leaving in their wake a resonance of something we just thought we had glimpsed. In this book, the author examines the imaginary or poetic dimensions of rarity. It comes about in the hushed spaces between stanzas, in the pauses between words and lines, in speechlessness. A flower, a silence in a room, a mournfully muttered 'oh, ' thorns and dark seeds, even rugs and tables, a hummingbird, the papery gown of a brother dying, all have rarity. Rilke's phrase 'the gesture of small flowers when they open in the morning' serves as an exemplary image of material and mental rarity Front Matter....Pages i-viii Introduction....Pages 1-9 The Rarity of Shade....Pages 10-20 The Rarity of the Gesture of Small Flowers....Pages 21-29 The Rarity of Attention....Pages 30-37 The Rarity of Dying....Pages 38-44 The Density of Suffering....Pages 45-53 The Rarity of One’s Own Death....Pages 54-61 The Rarity of Things....Pages 62-68 The Rarity of Accidents....Pages 69-77 The Rarity of the Beautiful....Pages 78-88 Coda....Pages 89-90 Back Matter....Pages 91-98 Machine generated contents note: Introduction -- 1. The Rarity of Shade -- 2. The Rarity of the Gesture of Small Flowers -- 3. Rarity of Attention -- 4. The Rarity of Dying -- 5. The Density of Suffering -- 6. The Rarity of One's Own Death -- 7. The Rarity of Things -- 8. The Rarity of Accidents -- 9. The Rarity of the Beautiful -- Coda