"Most critics assume that, like Dickinson, Hopkins was a total shut-in. I mean, you have to have a certain level of isolation in order to obtain that low a wonder-threshold. Emily Dickinson could basically walk downstairs and go, "Whoa! BREAKFAST!" and have enough material for a month!"-quote from my roommates literature professor
I love this quote. And I adore Hopkins. I think there is an incredibly valuable lesson here. Spring is springing, at least where I am the weather outside is beautiful. We don't have to be shut-ins, but I believe poetry and stories come from a sense of wonder and excitement about the world and everything around us. About the incredible people we can't help seeing everyday, about our own simultaneously grand and insignificant position in the universe. Of course not everything is right in the world, but the disparity between where we are and where we know we could be is what creates the thrill, anger, excitement, hope and intensity that great writing comes from. There is beauty everywhere, and perhaps its us writers job to find it.
Sarah Allen
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