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Can Poetry Matter?: Essays on Poetry and American Culture

Can Poetry Matter?: Essays on Poetry and American Culture is a thought-provoking compilation that examines the relevance and influence of poetry within the context of American culture. The essays within this volume discuss the importance of poetry, its ability to reflect and shape societal values, and its enduring presence in the American literary landscape. more

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Dana Gioia
Dana Gioia

Dana Gioia, born on December 24, 1950, is an accomplished American poet known for his profound emotions and rich imagination in his works. more

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“Originality is dangerous. It challenges, questions, overturns assumptions, unsettles moral codes, disrespects sacred cows or other such entities. It can be shocking, or ugly, or, to use the catch-all term so beloved of the tabloid press, controversial. And if we believe in liberty, if we want the air we breathe to remain plentiful and breathable, this is the art whose right to exist we must not only defend but celebrate. Art is not entertainment. At its very best, it's a revolution”

“When we confront a work of art we listen for the artist's voice. The greater the artist, the stronger and more distinct is the voice we hear. Only Mozart sounds like Mozart, only Hemingway sounds like Hemingway. This is one of the chief satisfactions of the artistic experience: to hear a voice speaking as only that voice can speak. And when the voice is exceptionally strong, it can exalt its material and allow us to experience the rarest of joys: that of transcendence.”

“Above all, the function of art is catharsis, purification: emotions accumulated in us under the pressure of social restraints, and liable to sudden issue in unsocial and destructive action, are touched off and sluiced away in the harmless form of theatrical excitement ; so tragedy, "through pity and fear, effects the proper purgation of these emotions." Aristotle [...] in this theory of catharsis he has made a suggestion endlessly fertile in the understanding of the almost mystic power of art.”

“أي عمل تتوكل على الله فيه انسه تماماً، لأنك إن توكلت على الله فهذا يعني أنك وضعت ثقتك في إتمام هذا العمل بمن يملك الأمور كلّها، ومن السماوات والأرض من بعض مربوباته، ومن يجير ولا يجار عليه”