Dear reader,

We believe that every healthy human child is naturally filled with wonder and awe. This wonder, associated with the early stage of human development, "enchantment," is one filled with a mystery and universal love that seems to animate all things. So, William Wordsworth was famously known as the poet of childhood because he often referred to this early "enchantment" stage as he sought to reconnect with the innocence and wonder of earlier times. Nature was seen as one of the key inspirations and reminders of this wonder, which could be revisited in poetry as a means of regaining some of the earlier "magic."

Unfortunately, this quality of early enchantment usually begins to lose its "magic" in adolescence -- as it must. The expectations and exigencies of impending adulthood become increasingly pronounced. We discover that not only is everything not enclosed by an eternal sense of awe and wonder, but that the opposite may often be true. These realizations include a sense of drab uniformity, conformity, utilitarian necessity, and even evil, in some cases. As a result, many find themselves virtually unprepared or equipped to face, let alone handle, the reality of so many shattered illusions. We often feel robbed of the innocence, wonder, and curiosity that had animated so great a part of our being.

Naturally, this enchantment, which may also be considered the Romantic stage of childhood and its later adolescent rebellion, must be superseded if we are to ever regain a sense of "wonder." This necessary intermediate stage may be called "disenchantment." The countless smiling faces and forgiving persons that seemed to greet us everywhere we went no longer appear so friendly or welcoming. The magic and wonder of nature, while beautiful, appears lonely, even indifferent. Alas, everywhere we look, the magic seems to fade and our many attempts to regain the earlier wonder all seem in vain. Increasingly, we become drawn to looking for new distractions, new forms of pleasure, and alternative forms of "entertainment" to rekindle that initial spark -- usually to no avail.

Properly understood, great art and poetry have as one of their chief functions that of awakening in us a desire to regain this wonder and discover "the real thing." When we do, the earlier preoccupation with the senses and nature as such evolves into a recognition of the all-too-necessary middle period, "disenchantment." It arises as a realization of the limitations of the senses and the romantic attempt, sometimes even mystical, to regain this wonder in adulthood within the purely sensual realm. The recognition of a new "limit" between our desires and the boundary conditions of our material selves becomes the path to a new kind of transcendence, one quite different from the earlier trance-like experience of childhood wonder. For, this time it is conscious, and we may choose to actively explore it.

This journey from early "enchantment" to the intermediary "disenchantment" and final "re-enchantment" is the theme of our third issue of the New Lyre Magazine.

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