ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that poetry can deal with abstractions, while acknowledging that there is something right in the intuition that poetry, even at its most abstract, deals with thought in a more sensuous and personal way than, for instance, philosophy. The reason most commonly adduced for supposing that poetry cannot deal with abstractions is the belief that poetry should summon up mental images of the things it describes. The chapter suggests that both the meaning theory and the figure theory are false. It considers that only a weak version of the aesthetic theory need be taken seriously. The importance of linguistic texture can be demonstrated clearly by looking at two passages from Wordsworth's 'Tintem Abbey'. The poem is not a direct transcript of what passed through Larkin's head, but is a supremely artful construct that is designed to give that impression. Someone who has read an accurate paraphrase of 'Tintem Abbey' is not in a position to evaluate the poem.
