“The duty of a lyrical poet is not to express or explain, it is to intensify life.”

Collected Poems (London: Macmillan, 1954) p. xii.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The duty of a lyrical poet is not to express or explain, it is to intensify life." by James Stephens?
James Stephens photo
James Stephens 8
Irish writer 1882–1950

Related quotes

Herbert Read photo

“From the poet's viewpoint a lyric is a poem which embodies a single or simple emotional attitude that expresses directly an uninterrupted mood or inspiration.”

Herbert Read (1893–1968) English anarchist, poet, and critic of literature and art

Form in Modern Poetry(1932)

Nancy Peters photo

“The most important of the beat poets. He was a really true poet with an original voice, probably the most lyrical of those poets.”

Nancy Peters (1936) American writer and publisher

Carol Ness, "Beat Poet Gregory Corso, 70, Dies of Cancer" http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/01/18/MN143830.DTL, San Francisco Chronicle, 2001-01-18. : On Gregory Corso.
2000s

José Baroja photo

“As a poet I am an emotional accident; a lyrical tourist.”

José Baroja (1983) Chilean author and editor

Source: Klairet Levy, R. Interview to José Baroja. http://letras.mysite.com/jbar050923.html

Big Daddy Kane photo

“I’m the authentic poet to get lyrical
For you to beat me, it’s gonna take a miracle.”

Big Daddy Kane (1968) American musician

"Ain't No Half Steppin'"
Albums, Long Live the Kane (1988)

Borís Pasternak photo

“It is no longer possible for lyric poetry to express the immensity of our experience. Life has grown too cumbersome, too complicated. We have acquired values which are best expressed in prose.”

Borís Pasternak (1890–1960) Russian writer

Interview in Writers at Work, Second Series (1963) edited by George Plimpton.

Walther von der Vogelweide photo

“For five hundred years after Walther's death – until Goethe – no German lyric poet was his equal.”

Walther von der Vogelweide (1170–1230) Middle High German lyric poet

Frederick Goldin German and Italian Lyrics of the Middle Ages (New York: Anchor, 1973) p. 101.
Praise

Nassim Nicholas Taleb photo

“If you want to annoy a poet, explain his poetry.”

Source: The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms

Juan Ramón Jimenéz photo

“This short book, where joy and sadness are twins, like the ears of Platero, was written for … I have no idea for whom! … For whomever lyric poets write …”

Juan Ramón Jimenéz (1881–1958) Spanish poet

"A NOTE TO THOSE GROWNUPS WHO MIGHT READ THIS BOOK TO CHILDREN", as translated by Antonio T. de Nicolas (1985), p. xv.
‪Platero and I‬ (1917)

Northrop Frye photo
Daniel Levitin photo

“Both poetry and lyrics and all visual arts draw their power from their ability to express abstractions of reality. …that is a feature of the musical brain.”

The World in Six Songs (2008)
Context: Both poetry and lyrics and all visual arts draw their power from their ability to express abstractions of reality.... that is a feature of the musical brain.

Related topics