“What is this poetry? A mortal mind
Made visible; a caged bird?
Nay more:it is a spiritleft behind
Nailed by the piercing word.”
On a poem, XC Brief Words, The Moray Press, Edinburgh 1935.
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William Soutar4
British poet 1898–1943Related quotes
“Good writers are visible just behind their words.”
William Zinsser (1922–2015) writer, editor, journalist, literary critic, professor
Source: On Writing Well (Fifth Edition, orig. pub. 1976), Chapter 4, Style, p. 23.
Ramakrishna (1836–1886) Indian mystic and religious preacher
Source: Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna (1960), p. 396
“Caged birds accept each other, but flight is what they long for.”
Tennessee Williams (1911–1983) American playwright
“A cage went in search of a bird.”
Franz Kafka book The Zürau Aphorisms
The Zürau Aphorisms (1917 - 1918), 16
“I am a cage, in search of a bird.”
Franz Kafka book The Zürau Aphorisms
16
The Zürau Aphorisms (1917 - 1918)
Variant: A cage went in search of a bird.
“A forest bird never wants a cage.”
Henrik Ibsen The Master Builder
Hilda, Act III
The Master Builder (1892)
“God loved the birds and invented trees. Man loved the birds and invented cages.”
Jacques Deval (1890–1972) French film director and writer
Quoted in Barbara K. Rodes and Rice Odell, A Dictionary of Environmental Quotations (1992), p. 22