ABSTRACT
The means by which words are made to suggest things to the imagination are, if you brush aside minor variations, extremely simple. Sometimes the things themselves are so interesting or unusual that a mere mention of them is enough. “A dog bit a man,” is not news, and for that reason is not poetry. It slides through the mind without evoking any vivid realization. But “A man bit a dog,” is startling enough to arouse the imagination as it stands. You have to try at least to see where he bit him. That is one way that words “paint pictures” in the mind.
The sexual revolution began with Man’s discovery that he was not attractive to Woman, as such. The lion had his mane, the peacock his gorgeous plumage, but Man found himself in a three-button sack suit. (E. B. White.)
