“The meanings of poetry take their growth through the interaction of the images and the music of the poem.”

—  Muriel Rukeyser

Source: The Life of Poetry (1949), p. 31
Context: The meanings of poetry take their growth through the interaction of the images and the music of the poem. The music is not the rhythm, which is a representation of life, alone. The music involves the interplay of the sounds of words, the length of the sequences, the keeping and breaking of rhythms, and the repetition and variation of syllables unrhymed and rhymed. It also involves the play of ideas and images.

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Muriel Rukeyser photo
Muriel Rukeyser 42
poet and political activist 1913–1980

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