Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Dave's avatar

Well, that put a faintly ironical smile on my face.

Expand full comment
J. S. Absher's avatar

If I think of machine broadly--"a constructed thing whether material or immaterial," as Merriam-Webster puts in a sense deemed archaic--I like the metaphor, since it seems to focus on poetry as craft. This reading turns Williams' likely meaning on its head, recalling as it does (again, from Merriam-Webster) the language of Natural Theology: "with what beauty, art and contrivance, particular creatures are made, and how the several parts of this great machine are fitted to each other, and make a regular and uniform world …" (William Sherlock).

Expand full comment
7 more comments...

No posts