(See May Sarton’s Journal of a Solitude entry for September 29, pages 29-31.)
”Yet it is true, and always has been, that innocence of heart and violence of feeling are necessary in any kind of superior achievement; the arts cannot exist without them.” May Sarton is quoting a book review by Louise Bogan of Caitlin Thomas. The extended quotation from Bogan’s book review is immediately preceded by Sarton’s own claim that, “the infant in myself must be forced to grow up, and in so doing die to its infant cries and rages.” And then she follows the quotation with a powerful speculation about her artistic reach, as a poet: “the work of art is a kind of dialogue between me and God . . . (the work of art) must present resolution rather than conflict . . . (which is) worked through by means of writing the poem . . . So there is Hell in my life but I have kept it out of the work . . . And now I am trying to master the Hell in my life, to bring all the darkness into the light. It is time, high time, that I grew up.”
This claim could have radical implications for many Christian makers, yes?