“Literature is not different from life, it is partof life. And for someone like myself, The Odysseyis as much a part of nature as the Aegean. And I react to the Aegean—as distinct, say, from the Caribbean—because its history is part of its physical substance. What I knowabout it, and feelabout it, even mistaken things, is a part of it. Certain great texts are like this. Paradise Lostis like the Himalayas. It’s there. A part of nature, not separate.” —John Hollander, The Art of Poetry No. 35