“Language is the archives of history … Language is fossil poetry.”
1840s, Essays: Second Series (1844), The Poet
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Ralph Waldo Emerson727
American philosopher, essayist, and poet 1803–1882Related quotes
“Prose uses the medium of language whilst poetry serves language and explores it.”
Michael Schmidt (poet) (1947) American poet
The Great Modern Poets, London, 2006
“It was the first poetry that spoke my own language.”
Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist
On the influence of Jack Kerouac, as quoted in Jack Kerouac (2007) by Alison Behnke, p. 100
Context: Someone handed me Mexico City Blues in St. Paul [Minnesota] in 1959 and it blew my mind. It was the first poetry that spoke my own language.
Jules Michelet (1798–1874) French historian
[Histoire de France, Michelet, Jules, Chamerot, 1861, 1, book 3]
History of France, 1833-1867
“Schizophrenic language has in this sense an interesting resemblance to poetry.”
Terry Eagleton (1943) British writer, academic and educator
Source: 1980s, Literary Theory: An Introduction (1983), Chapter 5, p. 138
Gregory Pardlo (1968) American writer
On if the poet has a responsibility in “‘The language is constructing our ideas more than we are deploying the language’: An interview with Gregory Pardlo” http://gulfcoastmag.org/reviews-and-interviews/art-and-reviews/an-interview-with-gregory-pardlo/ in Gulf Coast Magazine (2019 Jul 17)
“Gender is the poetry each of us makes out of the language we are taught.”
Leslie Feinberg (1949–2014) activist and author known for authoring Stone Butch Blues
Source: Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue