CrowSingsOver
Experienced
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2003
- Posts
- 98
Ars Poetica
A poem should be palpable and mute
As a globed fruit,
Dumb
As old medallions to the thumb,
Silent as the sleeve-worn stone
Of casement ledges where the moss has grown-
A poem should be wordless
As the flight of birds.
A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs,
Leaving, as the moon releases
Twig by twig the night-entangled trees,
Leaving, as the moon behind the winter leaves,
Memory by memory the mind-
A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs.
A poem should be equal to:
Not true.
For all the history of grief
An empty doorway and a maple leaf.
For love
The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea-
A poem should not mean
But be.
-Archibald MacLeish (1892-1982)
So, what is poetry to you? Here's a few comments on the subject:
"things that are true expressed in words that are beautiful" -Dante
"the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" -William Wordsworth
"musical thought" -Thomas Carlyle
"I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry." -Emily Dickinson
"speech framed...to be heard for its own sake and interest even over and above its interest of meaning." -Gerard Manley Hopkins
A poem should be palpable and mute
As a globed fruit,
Dumb
As old medallions to the thumb,
Silent as the sleeve-worn stone
Of casement ledges where the moss has grown-
A poem should be wordless
As the flight of birds.
A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs,
Leaving, as the moon releases
Twig by twig the night-entangled trees,
Leaving, as the moon behind the winter leaves,
Memory by memory the mind-
A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs.
A poem should be equal to:
Not true.
For all the history of grief
An empty doorway and a maple leaf.
For love
The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea-
A poem should not mean
But be.
-Archibald MacLeish (1892-1982)
So, what is poetry to you? Here's a few comments on the subject:
"things that are true expressed in words that are beautiful" -Dante
"the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" -William Wordsworth
"musical thought" -Thomas Carlyle
"I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry." -Emily Dickinson
"speech framed...to be heard for its own sake and interest even over and above its interest of meaning." -Gerard Manley Hopkins
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