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Poet Quotes

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Poet Quotes

“[The poet] must write as the interpreter of nature and the legislator of mankind, and consider himself as presiding over the thoughts and manners of future generations, as a being superior to time and place.”

Writing Generations Mankind Poet Superiors Manners Future Generation Legislators Interpreter

Author:Samuel Johnson

“Say what some poets will, Nature is not so much her own ever-sweet interpreter, as the mere supplier of that cunning alphabet, whereby selecting and combining as he pleases, each man reads his own peculiar lesson according to his own peculiar mind and mood.”

Men Mind Poet Sweet Please Lessons Mere Mood Peculiar Cunning Alphabet Combining Interpreter Suppliers

Book:Pierre; or The Ambiguities

Source: Pierre; or The Ambiguities

“I moved on to the University of California, Berkley, coordinating interpreters for Deaf students at the university. The first year I was at Berkley, we brought in artists, performers, actors, and poets to create a Deaf arts festival. I did a lot of the interpreting for the stage performers. By the second year, I realized that I really liked producing arts festivals that had to do something with signing.”

Years Firsts Art Artist Actors Stage Students Poet Moved University I Realized California Performers Deaf Festivals Signing Moved On Interpreting Interpreter Coordinating I Moved On

Author:Jack Jason

“Always in a foreign country, the poet uses poetry as an interpreter.”

Country Use Poet Interpreter Foreign Countries

Book:If There Were Anywhere But Desert: The Selected Poems of Edmond Jabès

Source: If There Were Anywhere But Desert: The Selected Poems of Edmond Jabès

“After all, poets shouldn't be their own interpreters and shouldn't carefully dissect their poems into everyday prose; that would mean the end of being poets. Poets send their creations into the world, it is up to the reader, the aesthetician, and the critic to determine what they wanted to say with their creations.”

World Mean Ends Wanted Poetry Creation Poet Reader Criticism Critics Everyday Determine Prose Interpreter

Author:Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“We have more poets than judges and interpreters of poetry. It is easier to write an indifferent poem than to understand a good one. There is, indeed, a certain low and moderate sort of poetry, that a man may well enough judge by certain rules of art; but the true, supreme, and divine poesy is equally above all rules and reason. And whoever discerns the beauty of it with the most assured and most steady sight sees no more than the quick reflection of a flash of lightning.”

Source: Works, Comprising His Essays, Letters, and Journey Through Germany and Italy: With Notes from All the Commentators, Biographical and Bibliographical Notices &c., &c

“I don't like realism. We already know the real facts about li[fe], most of the basic facts. I'm not interested in repeating what we already know. We know about sex, about violence, about murder, about war. All these things, by the time we're 18, we're up to here. From there on we need interpreters. We need poets. We need philosophers. We need theologians, who take the same basic facts and work with them and help us make do with those facts. Facts alone are not enough. It's interpretation.”

Knows Needs War Real Enough Facts Helping Sex Violence Poet Murder Philosopher Interpretation Not Interested Realism Theologian Interpreter

Author:Ray Bradbury

“The poets are nothing but interpreters of the gods, each one possessed by the divinity to whom he is in bondage.”

Poet Divinity Possessed Bondage Interpreter

Book:Phaedrus, Ion, Gorgias, and Symposium: With Passages from the Republic and Laws

Source: Phaedrus, Ion, Gorgias, and Symposium: With Passages from the Republic and Laws

“Every great architect is - necessarily - a great poet. He must be a great original interpreter of his time, his day, his age.”

Age Poet Originals Architecture Meaningful Birthday Architect Great Day Interpreter Great Poet Modern Architecture Mechanization Falling Water

Book:Frank Lloyd Wright Collected Writings: 1931-1939

Source: Frank Lloyd Wright Collected Writings: 1931-1939