Question

Why does the poet believe that "Whole libraries that no one/got around to writing" is "More disturbing than book ashes?"

Answer 1

In the poem, Burning a Book, by William Stafford, is a poem describing a burning book, and then going to more dept of what it means. In the poem Stafford says, "More disturbing than book ashes are whole libraries that no one got around to writing." The meaning of this is that burning books is not as terrible as not writing them at all. Stafford is trying to say that if you have an idea for a book and you do not write the book, or start it, but never finish, then that is worse then burning a book that's already written. He also says , "If a book isn't written, no one needs to burn it---- ignorance can dance in the absence of fire." This is meaning that if you do not write book then it can not be burned, so instead of fire burning it, the lack of knowledge is burning the unwritten book. Do you agree with Stafford?