Lauren HigginsLit Theory Dr. Jen BoyleDecember 2, 2014

Aristotle, Catharsis, and Poetry

A Visual Perspective:

The Poetics:

“Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole.With juice of cursed hebona in a vial,And in the porches of my ears did pourThe leprous distillment, whose effectHolds such an enmity with blood of man That swift as quicksilver it courses throughThe natural gates and alleys of the body . . .”

- Act 1, Scene 5, Hamlet

Free Verse Poetry:

“Somewhere beneath 125th Street there’s a small machine

so important that crowds gather, as if around a fire,just to hear its tiny engine hum, to feel its modest

warmth.Upon this small machine, it seems, everything

depends.”

- Excerpt taken from “God” from Millennial

Teeth by Dr. Dan Albergotti

When seeing a film or a play, our only record of it is in our memory. However, when we read a poem, as long as we have the text, we can return to it. How does this repetition of returning to the text benefit or harm poetics in terms of purification?

Dost thou pose questions?