The more important something is, the more we have to struggle in the attempt to reduce it to language. We would be lost without words, but sometimes it is wisdom to be lost for words. Words are always a representation in terms of something else. The work of art exists precisely to get beyond representation, to presence, even if that presence is itself composed of words, as it is in poetry. If this were not so, a lot of effort could have been spared, as it could all have been better stated in prose. The work of art does not hide, represent, or body forth something else, that must therefore be
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I've heard it said that you don't understand something until you can explain it to someone else. That is true only within a limited sphere. However, I cannot explain to my wife why I love the music of Rush, or why I love the ornateness of David Bentley Hart's prose.
