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Quote by Ishmael Reed

“Writing poetry is the hard manual labor of the imagination.”

Quote by Ishmael Reed

Book:Airing Dirty Laundry

Work

Airing Dirty Laundry

This book delves into the lives of individuals as they confront the repercussions of exposing their private struggles and vulnerabilities to the public eye. The narrative examines themes of trust, betrayal, and the human desire for connection amidst the chaos of personal revelations. more

Author

Ishmael Reed is an American poet, novelist, and playwright. Known for his unique literary style and profound exploration of racial, class, and gender issues, Reed was born on February 22, 1938. more

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“For poetry, he's past his prime, He takes an hour to find a rhyme; His fire is out, his wit decayed, His fancy sunk, his muse a jade. I'd have him throw away his pen, But there's no talking to some men.”

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Book:Select poems of Prior and Swift [ed. by C. Bathurst].

Source: Select poems of Prior and Swift [ed. by C. Bathurst].

“Good poetry could not have been otherwise written than it is. The first time you hear it, it sounds rather as if copied out of some invisible tablet in the Eternal mind than as if arbitrarily composed by the poet.”

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Book:The Early Lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Source: The Early Lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson

“For poetry was all written before time was, and whenever we are so finely organized that we can penetrate into that region where the air is music, we hear those primal warblings, and attempt to write them down, but we lose ever and anon a word, a verse, and substitute something of our own, and thus miswrite the poem.”

Writing Poetry Loses Written Air Organized Regions Substitutes Verses Penetrate Primal Anon

Book:The Portable Emerson: New Edition

Source: The Portable Emerson: New Edition

“A speech is poetry: cadence, rhythm, imagery, sweep! A speech reminds us that words, like children, have the power to make dance the dullest beanbag of a heart.”

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Book:Today's Best Nonfiction

Source: Today's Best Nonfiction

“. . . it is through poetry that we give name to those ideas which are-until the poem-nameless and formless, about to be birthed, but already felt.”

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Book:Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

Source: Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

“The sources of poetry are in the spirit seeking completeness.”

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Author:Muriel Rukeyser

“The crown of literature is poetry. It is its end and aim. It is the sublimest activity of the human mind. It is the achievement of beauty and delicacy. The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes.”

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Author:W. Somerset Maugham

“At certain times, men regard poetry merely as a bright flame, but to women it was, and always will be, a warm fire.”

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Author:Franz Grillparzer

“Such is the role of poetry. It unveils, in the strict sense of the word. It lays bare, under a light which shakes off torpor, the surprising things which surround us and which our senses record mechanically.”

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Author:Jean Cocteau

“Prose-it might be speculated-is discourse; poetry ellipsis. Prose is spoken aloud; poetry overheard. The one is presumably articulate and social, a shared language, the voice of "communication"; the other is private, allusive, teasing, sly, idiosyncratic as the spider's delicate web, a kind of witchcraft unfathomable to ordinary minds.”

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Book:(Woman) writer: occasions and opportunities

Source: (Woman) writer: occasions and opportunities