Transcendentalism and Poetry

Question 1. M.H Abrams argues in The Mirror and the lamp that one important branch of the mimetic approach to literary criticism might be described as a "transcendental theory deriving from Plato" (36). This theory specifies the proper objects of art to be Ideas or Forms which are perhaps approachable by the way of the world of sense, but are ultimately trans-empirical... and available only to the mind of the eye. (36) It is these forms or …

…world. Although, the poet through meditation, can raise himself to a level in which he imagines himself or his mind to be in accordance with the divine world. However, for the Platonist the reason and not the fancy should be the essence of us being able to see that this world is just an imitation of the perfect world. And the essence of this realization is in conjunction with the superior reasoning of the philosopher.