“When an Englishman has professed his belief in the supremacy of Shakespeare amongst all poets, he feels himself excused from the general study of literature. He also feels himself excused from the particular study of Shakespeare.” FeelsLiteratureBeliefStudyParticularPoetEnglishmenSupremacy Author:Aubrey Beardsley
“The fact is that I have lived with the belief that power, any kind of power, was the one thing forbidden to poets. ... Power requires that the inner person never be unmasked. No, we poets have to go naked. And since this is so, it is better that we stay private people; a naked public person would be rather ridiculous, what?” PeopleKindPersonsFactsWould BeBeliefOne ThingPoetRidiculousNakedForbidden Book:Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing: A Novel Source: Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing: A Novel
“Without constraint, without any form of mental compulsion, the act of belief becomes the freest possible projection of what resides in our hearts. Like the poet's image of a church bell that reveals its latent music only when struck, or a dragonfly that flames forth its beauty only in flight, so does the content of a human heart lie buried until action calls it forth. The greatest act of self-revelation occurs when we choose what we will believe, in that space of freedom that exists between knowing that a thing is and knowing that a thing is not.” BelieveHumansHeartDoeSelfActionFormLyingBeliefChurchSpaceKnowingPoetFlightFlamesRevelationsBuriedBellsHuman HeartProjectionCompulsionConstraintsLatentDragonfliesSelf RevelationChurch Bells Author:Terryl L. Givens
“The revelatory or visionary is the province of the 'private' artist, who in order to render his personal world comprehensible or even tolerable, must force others to believe in it and therefore share it. It is said that 'the poet does not wish to be understood, but to be believed.” WorldBelieveDoeSaidArtistOrderBeliefForceWishSharePoetUnderstoodVisionariesProvincesTolerable Author:Kenneth Coutts-Smith
“No poet or novelist wishes he were the only one who ever lived, but most of them wish they were the only one alive, and quite a number fondly believe their wish has been granted.” LifeWritingBelieveHas BeensBeliefWishNumbersAlivePoetGrantedNovelists Author:W. H. Auden
“The great post-Holocaust poet, Paul Celan, said that a poem is a message in a bottle sent out in the not always greatly hopeful belief that somewhere and some time it would wash up on land on heartland perhaps.” SaidBeliefLandPoetMessagesPostsHopefulBottlesHolocaustMessage In A Bottle Author:Edward Hirsch
“This concept that you refer to in Buddhism is something I've been nurtured with through the history of my country for 700, 800 years - Persian poets and philosophers haven't said anything different with regard to experiencing life in the moment, as opposed to the belief of permanence.” YearsSaidDifferentCountryMomentsBeliefHavensPoetBuddhismConceptsRegardPhilosopherPermanencePersian Author:Abbas Kiarostami