Parnassus, Preface
“Some of us – poets are not exactly poets. We live sometimes – beyond the word.”
“Goethe is an altogether practical Poet.”
Novalis (1829)
Context: Goethe is an altogether practical Poet. He is in his works what the English are in their wares: highly simple, neat, convenient and durable. He has done in German Literature what Wedgwood did in English Manufacture. He has, like the English, a natural turn for Economy, and a noble Taste acquired by Understanding. Both these are very compatible, and have a near affinity in the chemical sense.
We prefer “freedom”, we want to be as free as we can, but freedom and responsibility can go together. We’re responsible because we’re writers, and we’ve been at this all our lives…
On the poet having both responsibility and freedom in “Interview with Juan Felipe Herrera” https://gulfstreamlitmag.com/archives/online-archives/current-issue-4/features/interview-with-juan-felipe-herrera/ (Gulf Stream, 2015)
Letter to Paul Cézanne (16 April 1860), as published in Paul Cézanne : Letters (1995) edited by John Rewald.
“And muse on Nature with a poet's eye.”
Part II, line 98
Pleasures of Hope (1799)
“The poet is a god, or, the young poet is a god. The old poet is a tramp.”
Opus Posthumous (1955), Adagia
Source: Autobiography (1873)
Source: https://archive.org/details/autobiography01mill/page/149/mode/1up p. 149
