The Lotus Eaters Forum EX#13: The Poet and the Philos..

Write a creative piece that involves the perspectives of both poet and philosopher. The poet observes the world and notices the details; he looks at the world through a microscope. The philosopher observes the world and looks for what it represents; he looks at the world in a macrocosm. C.S. Lewis wrote that the first writes allegory, that is, the poet writes fiction to illustrate something about the world. The philosopher writes in symbolism, the world is the illustration of something "immaterial." The challenge is to incorporate both perspectives. Write of something "immaterial" by using the things of the world to illustrate it, but be so minute in detail that you don't gloss over the reality of the world by trying to express an idea. I'm leaving this one posted for two weeks because it is not simple, and to be written well, it will probably take more than an hour.