Ian McEwan On Getting Lost In Poetry

“[It] takes an effort to step out of the daily narrative of existence, draw that neglected cloak of stillness around you – and concentrate, if only for three or four minutes. Perhaps the greatest reading pleasure has an element of self-annihilation. To be so engrossed that you barely know you exist. … What is it precisely, that feeling of ‘returning’ from a poem? Something is lighter, softer, larger – then it fades, but never completely.”