Richard Seddon wrote:

> You and Nancy are right; language has sequence and therefore is temploral.

There are two metaphors you might be interested in.

     The poem as a well-wrought urn. (Cleanth Brooks from Donne's "The
     Canonization")
     The poem as a shape cut in time. (Donald Davie “Syntax and Music in
     ‘Paradise Lost’,” in _The Living Milton_, Frank Kermode, editor.)

Marcia