Quotes About Verse

This contrasted with logos, which also meant 'word' but in the sense of a truth which can be argued and maybe changed (as in, 'what's the word on . . .?'). Unlike logoi, which were written in prose, myths were recorded in verse.

Vouloir donner à la prose le rythme du vers (en la laissant prose et très prose) et écrire la vie ordinaire comme on écrit l'histoire ou l'épopée (sans dénaturer le sujet) est peut-être une absurdité. Voilà ce que je me demande parfois. Mais c'est peut-être aussi une grande tentative et très originale

With Shakespeare, if you're not going to do the iambic pentameter, do some other play.

The distinctive feature of that religion lies in the meaning of the verse from Leviticus: that individual liberty for all—all, of any color or creed—is at the very center of the broad faith the Founders nurtured and passed on to us.

all disgracers of the press in prose and verse condemned to eat nothing but their own cotton, and quench their thirst with their own ink.

Truth shines the brighter clad in verse.

We did meet forty years ago. At that time we were both influenced by Whitman and I said, jokingly in part, 'I don't think anything can be done in Spanish, do you?' Neruda agreed, but we decided it was too late for us to write our verse in English. We'd have to make the best of a second-rate literature.

La realidad poética puede caber en una copla lo mismo que en un verso virgiliano.

A quien leyere Si las páginas de este libro consienten algún verso feliz, perdóneme el lector la descortesía de haberlo usurpado yo, previamente. Nuestras nadas poco difieren; es trivial y fortuita la circunstancia de que tú seas el lector de estos ejercicios, y yo su redactor.

Quando leggiamo versi davvero straordinari, davvero buoni, tendiamo a farlo ad alta voce. Un buon verso non si lascia leggere a bassa voce o in silenzio. Se ci riusciamo, non è un verso efficace: il verso esige di essere declamato. Il verso non dimentica di essere stato un'arte orale prima di essere un'arte scritta, non dimentica di essere stato un canto.

Nothing reveals a poet's weakness like classical verse, and that's why it's so universally dodged.

They say my verse is sad: no wonder. Its narrow measure spans Rue for eternity, and sorrow Not mine, but man's This is for all ill-treated fellows Unborn and unbegot, For them to read when they're in trouble And I am not.

Öte yandan, modern dünya ?iirinin kurucular?n?n ?iirin yap?s?nda yapt?klar? devrim, dizeyi de yerinden oynatm??t?r." ?lhan Berk, 'Poetika', sayfa 36

What do I mean by commitment? I'll flash back to 1821: Shelley's claim, in "The Defence of Poetry", that "poets are the unacknowledged legislaters of the world". Piously overquoted, mostly out of context, it's taken to suggest that simply by virtue of compossing verse, poets exert some exemplary moral power - in a vaue, unthreatening way. (...) He did NOT say, "Poets are the unacknowledged interior decorators of the world".

My verse works.' In two senses: as participant in political struggle, and at the personal, visceral level where it's received and its witness acknowledged. These are two responses to the question of poetry and commitment, which I take as complementary, not in opposition.

Poetry is this gorgeous, complex history rendered in verse and song, a blueprint that can lead you back into the world after you've walked into air.

But for a few phrases from his letters and an odd line or two of his verse, the poet walks gagged through his own biography.

I cannot marry the facts of William Shakespeare to his verse: Other men had led lives in some sort of keeping with their thought, but this man is in wide contrast.

It was pretty silly quoting poetry around free and easy like that. It was the act of a silly damn snob. Give man a few lines of verse and he thinks he's the Lord of all Creation. You think you can walk on water with all your books. Well, the world can get by just fine without them.

Answer That you are here---that life exists and identity, That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

Put your ideas in verse if you can; they will be more likely to be taken as truth.

A kenning is a metaphorical circumlocution consisting of paired nouns or a noun phrase. For example, in ancient Icelandic verse, a sword is not a sword but an "icicle of blood"; a ship is not a ship but the "horse of the sea"; and eyes are not eyes but the "moons of the forehead." Similarly, the earth is "the floor of the hall of the winds" or "the sea trodden on by animals," while fire is "destroyer of timber" or "the sun of houses.

All poems live or die in the concerted arrangement of syllables into patterns that are alternatively broken or reinforced. Wyatt taught me that." —James Longenbach

And what holds good of verse holds infinitely better in respect to prose.