Poetry, God and the Soul

Christian Wiman on Poetry, God and the soul. (in The American Scholar)


It is time that the stone grew accustomed to blooming,
That unrest formed a heart.
—Paul Celan


"Some modern philosophers (Heidegger, Kierkegaard) have argued that existential anxiety proceeds from being unconscious of, or inadequately conscious of, death. True, I think, but I wonder if the emphasis might be placed differently, shifted from unconscious reaction to unrealized action: that is, our anxiety is less the mind shielding itself from death than the spirit’s need tobe. It is as if each of us were always hearing some strange, complicated music in the background of our lives, music which, so long as it remains in the background, is not simply distracting but manifestly unpleasant, because it demands the attention we are giving to other things. It is not hard to hear this music, but it is very difficult indeed to learn to hear it as music." Read the entire essay here.


Christian Wiman is the editor of Poetry magazine and the author of two books of poems. His most recent book is Ambition and Survival.