Charles Tomtinson and the Language of Silence.

This article explores British poet Charles Tomlinson's literary influences and interests. In 1969, Tomlinson introduced a collection of essays on Marianne Moore by praising her readiness to accord to objects and to animals a life of their own in an age when such major poets as Eliot and Yeats have treated nature with imperiousness. In much of his poetry, Tomlinson reflects his interest in phenomenology. He traces his roots to Nietzche and Ruskin, and his work after 1969 was influenced by Merleau-Ponty, whose philosophy emphasizes the primacy of perception. And both Tomlinson and Merleau-Ponty write of perception by making analogies between language and perception.