Andrew, I've found Aristotle flirting with the Carson statement but never quite getting there. I wonder if she inferred it. I know I've heard people attribute it to Aristotle, but they may have gotten it second-hand. Oh well...
I cannot get on board with the notion that metaphor is anything but fundamental to poetry. Certainly bad, purple, or artless metaphor ruins the experience, but that only bolsters the argument for its importance. Strip poetry of metaphor and what you are left with is versified didacticism.
Metaphor conveys what language cannot, by forcing the reader to experience the same "mistake" the writer did.
Furthermore, I think we're hardwired for metaphor. Our best understanding of the brain currently holds that it performs distributed processing, collecting and linking sensory inputs into a (hopefully) cohesive picture. It's not linear. We think in metaphor. In fact, certain brain injuries have resulted in the victim experiencing synaesthesia (mixing up senses).
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