On April 16, 1336, the Italian poet Petrarch climbed Mount Ventoux because he felt like it, to satisfy his itch for the clean, thin air of elevation. Eventually, the poet made it to the peak, and after marveling at the beauty in front of him, he reproached himself: in surveying the beauty outside himself, he had neglected the infinite mystery within himself.
He, among other fathers of modernity, turned his focus, and the focus of generations after him, inward. In this reading group, we will follow their prompt towards interiority by reading poems and short stories of the last five hundred years. Beginning with the inward addresses of the Metaphysical Poets and finishing with the dream-like short stories of surrealism, we will ask this ancient question: Who am I, and what is reality?
Led by James Prather, MA
Email jprather@houstoninstitute.org to RSVP.
