“Poets may boast (as safely-vain) Their work shall with the world remain: Both bound together, live, or die, The verses and the prophecy. But who can hope his lines shou'd long Last, in a daily changing tongue? While they are new, envy prevails, And as that dies, our language fails.” WorldMayLongTogetherLastsDiesLanguageLinesFailingPoetBoundsTongueEnvyVainVersesProphecyBoast Author:Edmund Waller
“I see cities as organisms, as living creatures. To me Madrid is a man and Barcelona is a woman. And it's a woman who's extremely vain. One of the great Catalan poets, Joan Maragall, wrote this famous poem in which he called Barcelona the great enchantress, or some kind of sorceress, and in which the city has this dark enticing presence that seduces and lures people. I think Barcelona has a lot of that.” PeopleThinkingMenKindDarkCitiesPoetCreaturesVainOrganismsLureSeducingLiving CreaturesBarcelonaMadridEnticingSorceressEnchantress Author:Carlos Ruiz Zafon
“The source of each accordant strain Lies deeper than the Poet's brain. First from the people's heart must spring The passions which he learns to sing; They are the wind, the harp is he, To voice their fitful melody,-- The language of their varying fate, Their pride, grief, love, ambition, hate,-- The talisman which holds inwrought The touchstone of the listener's thought; That penetrates each vain disguise, And brings his secret to his eyes.” PeopleFirstsHeartEyeLyingHatePassionLanguageVoiceGriefSecretBrainFatePoetWindSourcePrideAmbitionSpringDeeperVainHis EyesMelodyDisguiseListenersStrainPenetrateHarpsTouchstonesTalismans Book:The Poems Source: The Poems
“It is in vain a daring author thinks of attaining to the heights of Parnassus if he does not feel the secret influence of heaven and if his natal star has not formed him to be a poet.” IfsThinkingFeelsDoeHeavenStarsSecretInfluencePoetVainHeightDaringAuthorshipNatal Author:Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux
“It is an evil world. The fires of hatred and violence burn fiercely. Evil is powerful, the devil covers a darkened earth with hisblack wings. And soon the end of the world is expected. But mankind does not repent, the church struggles, and the preachers and poets warn and lament in vain.” WorldDoeEndsEarthEvilChurchPowerfulStruggleFireViolenceMankindPoetDevilHatredWingsExpectedVainPreacherRepentEnd Of The WorldLamentEvil World Author:Johan Huizinga
“Those things which make the infernal regions terrible, the darkness, the prison, the river of flaming fire, the judgment seat, are all a fable, with which the poets amuse themselves, and by them agitate us with vain terrors.” DarknessFirePoetTerribleJudgmentRiversPrisonTerrorVainSeatsRegionsFablesAgitate Author:Seneca the Younger