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Lot #293
Rockwell Kent Typed Letter Signed

"'Enjoyment' is not the term for the deep emotion—often tragically deep emotion—that greater poetry has roused in me"

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Estimate: $200+
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Description

"'Enjoyment' is not the term for the deep emotion—often tragically deep emotion—that greater poetry has roused in me"

TLS, one page, 8.5 x 11, personal letterhead, March 20, 1949. Letter to Professor Charles L. Wallis of Keuka College's English Department, identifying the poems which "roused" in him a "deep emotion." In full: "With the exception of 'The Hunting of the Snark,' the 'Bab Ballads,' and such things which I have over and over again thoroughly enjoyed, I must say that 'enjoyment' is not the term for the deep emotion—often tragically deep emotion—that greater poetry has roused in me. So, I am not telling you what poems I have enjoyed, but what poems have most moved me.

You want a poem that you can include in your book, so there is little sense in mentioning 'The Odyssey,' or even 'The Ancient Mariner'—although it may be that you could print a few verses from 'The Ancient Mariner.' They are those which point to the moral of his tragic experience at sea, his final words to the Wedding Guest, beginning, 'Farewell, farewell, But this I tell….' and continuing to the end. These last stanzas, following all the poem that has preceded, are to me a deeply moving and convincing a creed for living as I know." In fine condition.

Auction Info

  • Auction Title: Fine Autograph and Artifacts Featuring Animation
  • Dates: #668 - Ended June 14, 2023





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