Some Great Sayings on POETRY - 2
PALANA (nparinand@cas.org)
Thu, 29 May 1997 16:45:11 -0400
"It is an advantage to mankind in general to live in a BEAUTIFUL world; that no
one can doubt. But for the poet is it so important?
We mean all sorts of things, I know by beauty. But the essential advantage for a
poet is not, to have a beautiful world with which to deal; it is to be able to
see beneath both beauty and ugliness; to see boredom and the horror and the
glory."
--TS Eliot
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Whatever is the actual content and overt interest, every poem is rooted in
imaginative awe. Poetry can do a hundred and one things, DELIGHT, SADDEN,
DISTURB, AMUSE, INSTRUCT - it may express every possible shade of EMOTION and
describe every conceivable kind of event, but there is only one thing that all
poetry must do: It must praise all it can for being and for happening.
--Auden
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--pAlana