
“Sculpture and painting are moments of life. Poetry is life itself.”
On poetry
As quoted in Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century (1981) edited by Leonard S. Klein, Vol. 2, p. 504
“Sculpture and painting are moments of life. Poetry is life itself.”
On poetry
“Art is naturally concerned with man in his existential aspect, not in his scientific aspect.”
Source: The Strength To Dream (1961), p. 214
Context: Art is naturally concerned with man in his existential aspect, not in his scientific aspect. For the scientist, questions about man's stature and significance, suffering and power, are not really scientific questions; consequently he is inclined to regard art as an inferior recreation. Unfortunately, the artist has come to accept the scientist's view of himself. The result, I contend, is that art in the twentieth century — literary art in particular — has ceased to take itself seriously as the primary instrument of existential philosophy. It has ceased to regard itself as an instrument for probing questions of human significance. Art is the science of human destiny. Science is the attempt to discern the order that underlies the chaos of nature; art is the attempt to discern the order that underlies the chaos of man. At its best, it evokes unifying emotions; it makes the reader see the world momentarily as a unity.
Source: 1960s, "The Use and Misuse of Game Theory," 1962, p. 110
“Poetry — No definition of poetry is adequate unless it be poetry itself.”
January 26, 1840
Journals (1838-1859)
Context: Poetry — No definition of poetry is adequate unless it be poetry itself. The most accurate analysis by the rarest wisdom is yet insufficient, and the poet will instantly prove it false by setting aside its requisitions. It is indeed all that we do not know. The poet does not need to see how meadows are something else than earth, grass, and water, but how they are thus much. He does not need discover that potato blows are as beautiful as violets, as the farmer thinks, but only how good potato blows are. The poem is drawn out from under the feet of the poet, his whole weight has rested on this ground. It has a logic more severe than the logician's. You might as well think to go in pursuit of the rainbow, and embrace it on the next hill, as to embrace the whole of poetry even in thought.
“Poetry, like Art, is the oneness of the permanent opposites in reality as seen by an individual.”
Definition 18 (c) Definition Press, (New York: Definition Press, 1964)
“The language of poetry is the only speech which has in it the power of permanent impression”
Introduction
Bards of the Bible, 1850
Thought and Change (1964)