The test of literature is, I suppose, whether we ourselves live more intensely for the reading of it.
quote by Elizabeth Drew
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Related quotes
Traffic Jam: The Trap Of Traffic Light
It's not only test your luck, but also test your patience
It's not only test your guts, but also test your instinct
It's not only test your sanity, but also test your obedience to law
It's not only test your ethics, but also test your fidelity
It's not only test your sight, but also test your reflex
It's not only test your estimation of time, but also test your street knowledge
It's not only test your ego, but also test your kindness
It's not only test your control, but also test your awareness
It's not only test your attitude, but also test your responsibility
It's not only test your priority, but also test your humanity
poem by Maria Sudibyo
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Literature I Loved
LITERATURE I LOVED
Literature I loved-
Reading gave new lives and new worlds-
Experience enriched beyond
What I could have ever have imagined alone-
The pleasure and joy of it
The discovery the adventure-
Literature I loved
And Life greater because of it.
poem by Shalom Freedman
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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That book taught me that by reading, I could live more intensely. It could give me back the sight I had lost.
Carlos Ruiz Zafon in The Shadow of the Wind (2001)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Be Blind Sometime
Don’t test literature
With science and wisdom.
Don’t test the scriptures
With science and knowledge
Don’t test your beloved
With doubts and notions.
They will lose their charm.
Be blind to enjoy them.
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Suppose a smile.
Suppose a smile.
Suppose it always, with a smile.
Suppose the sun to shine,
shine with a smile;
suppose the rain to fall and smile
smile at the earth;
the snow, with gentle smile,
protecting tender shoots;
suppose the wind to smile
mysteriously, about its secretwork;
suppose – that’s easy – flowers
to open with a smile; and
smile as they fade and wave farewell,
a smile that says, that’s how it is…
suppose some patient smiles:
as rain-forests say to those who cut them down,
you’ll live to regret this; here’s
your chance to learn;
suppose the desert sand to smile
and say, you took the trees, and now
I’m here; plant, call down rain, store, irrigate…
suppose the ice-cap, melting with sad smile,
saying, I did not choose…
suppose that Abraham, Moses, Christ, Mohammed
spoke their uncompromising, uncomfortable truths
always with a smile; a gentle smile;
a smile to say, I'm here, you're here to learn...
suppose the spear to smile,
hammered into pruning-hook..
suppose smile met with smile.
Suppose.
poem by Michael Shepherd
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Properly, we should read for power. Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one's hand.
quote by Ezra Pound
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Who You Are
Someone's drinking all alone
Someone's left the TV on
I don't suppose, no I don't suppose
Someone's sleeping in my bed
Someone's let the genie in
I don't suppose, no I don't suppose
You know who you are
Who you are, who you are today
Baby's gone and died again
Taken by the tide again
And it's no surprise
She hates goodbyes
Someone's folding paper planes
Someone's on the line again
Someone's crying at the sonnet
Someone's hiding from someone
I don't suppose, no I don't suppose
You know who you are
Who you are, who you are today
song performed by by Tears For Fears
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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When once the itch of literature comes over a man, nothing can cure it but the scratching of a pen. But if you have not a pen, I suppose you must scratch any way you can.
quote by Samuel Lover
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Stifle not the reader
Reading is an art,
reading is a tool.
Those who think it dumb,
must be such a fool.
Reading is enjoyment,
reading is a blast.
Reading is a separate entity
from the future and the past.
Reading is done in present,
though written in a tense.
Reading is about life,
in surprise or suspense.
Reading is a place of joy,
full of hope and song,
Reading is a place I feel
that I truly do belong.
A trapdoor to a fantasy,
A world thought lost to us,
Reading is a place of wonder,
a place that we can trust.
Why read about reality,
when I can delve into magic.
Why stifle my own happiness,
with scenarios so tragic.
Stifle not the reader,
for it is their choice alone.
Reading is an outlet,
for hearts that turned to stone.
Few of the great works of ancient Greek literature are easy reading.
quote by Gilbert Murray
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Given the devaluation of literature and of the study of foreign languages per se in the United States, as well as the preponderance of theory over text in graduate literature studies, creative writing programs keep literature courses populated.
quote by Marilyn Hacker
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Moderns
To many reading modern poetry more interesting the meaning in the metaphors they seek to find
They feel it makes their brains work that much harder that it is good exercise for the mind
Rhyme for their great brains seems that bit too simple it does not test their thinking power at all
'Tis not a poem to them if it seems simple and the meaning in it easy to recall,
Yes rhyme for them it does seem that bit simple and deciphering it to them is not a test
The hidden meaning in the metaphors is something that does seem to try them best
Rhyme poetry to them is too simple and far too easy for to understand
It has to be blank verse with dozens of metaphors for their interest for to command
They look on rhyme and bush poets as inferior their preference in poets and poetry they make known
On literature they air their opinions like it is said to each their own
Their poetry evenings do seem quite exclusive rhyme poets to read they never do invite
Their unmusical lines that are laced with metaphors to each other they do recite
They do not like rhyme or they do not like bush poetry to them it is of another time
And in their poetry evenings there is no place for the men and the women of rhyme.
poem by Francis Duggan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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For More Than Fifteen Years
For more than fifteen years he intensely hated life.
For more than fifteen years he intensely hated his parents.
He intensely hated his parents for giving him abuse hell life.
He intensely hated his parents for subjecting him to abuse hell life.
A hell life that no mortal child or man should suffer through live.
A hell life that he a mortal soul could but suffer through die live.
So much of the best of thee could not survive that broken bitter life.
Important parts of thee did not could not survive that broken bitter life.
Only love can restore renew those lost parts of thee.
Only love can restore renew that lost heart of thee.
So many of us are but puzzle pieces of men women we should be.
That is parents crime across generations unabated abuse misuse.
The circle of repetitive violence abuse can be is broken in thee.
You will set all your children and all their offspring free.
You will free generations unborn yet to be.
poem by Terence George Craddock
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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I just happen to like the work. I like preparing for a role. I like reading. I like analyzing. I like literature. I like emotions. I like working with other actors.
quote by Elle Macpherson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Living the Dream
What would it be like to live the dream
People reading my poems and knowing what they mean
What would it be like to live the dream
Every where I went people knowning who they seen
What would it be like to live the dream
Be like shakespear or someone talented I don’t even come near
What would it be like to live the dream
Without living everyday wanting to scream
What would it be like to live the dream
At only the age that I am 18
What would it be like to live the dream
Of being happy in life and working with a team
What would it be like to live the dream
Get my work out there and people would care
What would it be like to live the dream
of being famous and hearing people scream
what would it be like to live the dream
people reading my poems and knowing what they mean
poem by Stephanie Mcgrath
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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I began as a boy with artistic talent... as a visual artist... I thought that was what I'd become and in my late teens drifted into reading serious literature.
quote by Russell Banks
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Suppose
Suppose no rose would ever grow again
Suppose no brook would ever flow again
Suppose no star should ever glow again
Suppose you didn't love me
Suppose there were no bees or butterflies
Suppose no bird should ever cross the skies
Suppose the sun should never never rise
Suppose you didn't love me
It's impossible to imagine a world without a star
But imagining no you is more impossible, by far
Suppose the Springtime never should arrive
Suppose the tall green trees should not survive
Suppose I had no wish to be alive
Suppose you didn't love me
It's impossible to imagine a world without a star
But imagining no you is more impossible, by far
Suppose the Springtime never should arrive
Suppose the tall green trees should not survive
Suppose I had no wish to be alive
Suppose you didn't love me
Suppose you didn't love me
song performed by by Elvis Presley
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A husband and wife often fight intensely at one moment and then kiss intensely at the next moment.
Oh The Poems
OH THE POEMS AND THE POEMS AND THE POEMS
Oh the poems and the poems and the poems
Oh the love of Literature
Oh all that stuff
I have given my life to-
Words and meanings and feelings
Pages and pages and pages –
What it is all this literary life for?
When out the window out the door
With our eyes we see in an instant other worlds other dreams?
I don’t know and I will never know
And Literature is certainly far more than I can say it is-
Oh the poems and this poem and this day turning grey
And all my life old and old and more old and more old-
Oh why oh why oh why
And always back to God
My last rescue and refuge and escape
I who have read so much Great Literature
And can only write this-
Oh the why and the oh oh oh and the words
And the whole world of Literature
I would belong to and do not.
Oh the words oh the world oh the Literature
Oh God help me please can’t you please help me a little or not?
poem by Shalom Freedman
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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I Did Not Need Or Want To Be Anyone But Myself
I DID NOT NEED OR WANT TO BE ANYONE BUT MYSELF
I did not need or want to be anyone but myself-
But was my self a self worth being?
I did not want to be Wallace Stevens
I did not want to be Wordsworth
I did not want to be Hopkins or Dickinson or Blake or Yeats-
They were all who they were
And a blessing to many-
I just want to be who I am
But am I a self worth being?
Or am I just a person
Whose name is namelessness?
I suppose I can live with my own namelessness
And my not being one of those with a real name-
I suppose I can live with being only who I am
However unworthy that is
Name or not, nameless or not
After all
I am only who I am -
And I will only pass this way one time-
Name or not.
poem by Shalom Freedman
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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