Take a commonplace, clean it and polish it, light it so that it produces the same effect of youth and freshness and originality and spontaneity as it did originally, and you have done a poet's job. The rest is literature.
quote by Jean Cocteau
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes
In the same period, Polish literature also underwent some significant changes. From social-political literature, which had a great tradition and strong motivation to be that way, Polish literature changed its focus to a psychological rather than a social one.
quote by Andrzej Wajda
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
A rise in wages, from an alteration in the value of money, produces a general effect on price, and for that reason it produces no real effect whatever on profits.
quote by David Ricardo
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
The instinct to impersonate produces the actor; the desire to provide pleasure by impersonations produces the playwright; the desire to provide this pleasure with adequate characterization and dialogue memorable in itself produces dramatic literature.
quote by George P. Baker
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
The characteristic of the hour is that the commonplace mind, knowing itself to be commonplace, has the assurance to proclaim the rights of the commonplace and to impose them wherever it will.
quote by Jose Ortega y Gasset
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Being A Poet
being a poet
is not an ambition
it is ironic
that i do poetry and
yet i do not want
to be called a poet
nor be identified with
any movement in poetry
nor take the challenge and opportunity
of being crowned by laurel leaves
and be dragged on the stage of
an island of light focusing my head and body
and they shall all clap and say
this is the poet, this is our poet
not in the figment of my imagination
not an ambition not a profession not a career in the field of literature
to be a poet on a certain degree
you see, i live in a crowded universe
i am a fish in the sea of people
and i, never imagine once in my whole life
that i will be swimming so meaninglessly in the corridors
of this vast ocean of men and mice and snakes
and goats and pigs and eagles
poetry is what i do but i am not a poet
this poet, that poet
their poet
the reason is here inside my heart
this is my place &
this is my only chance to be alone
to be myself to be human again for out there
i, we, you have become pillars
and dams.and walls and continental shelves
it is only here in this spot
that i become my island
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Ch 07 On The Effects Of Education Story 01
A vezier who had a stupid son gave him in charge of a scholar to instruct him and if possible to make him intelligent. Having been some time under instruction but ineffectually, the learned man sent one to his father with the words: ‘The boy is not becoming intelligent and has made a fool of me.’
When a nature is originally receptive
Instruction will take effect thereon.
No kind of polishing will improve iron
Whose essence is originally bad.
Wash a dog in the seven oceans,
He will be only dirtier when he gets wet.
If the ass of Jesus be taken to Mekkah
He will on his return still be an ass.
Every cause produces more than one effect.
quote by Herbert Spencer
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Before a Poetry Reading
'Poet! Poet! Poet! Poet! '
I'm feeling nervous but I mustn't show it!
'Poet! Poet! Poet! Poet! '
I hope to heaven that I won't blow it!
'Poet! Poet! Poet! Poet! '
I mustn't reveal that I'm a second-rate poet!
I'm only a rhymer, but they don't know it!
If you've got no talent you'll have to grow it!
'Poet! Poet! Poet! Poet! '
poem by John Thorkild Ellison
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
To say that a man is vain means merely that he is pleased with the effect he produces on other people.
quote by Max Beerbohm
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.
quote by C.S. Lewis
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.
quote by C.S. Lewis
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy! | In Romanian
The Poet I Am', And 'The Poet I Am Not
The poet I am, and the poet I am not
‘The poet I am’ says
To ‘the poet I am not’,
‘Why can’t I be more like you? ’
And ‘the poet I am not’ says
‘Because you are not good enough’
And ‘the poet I am’ begins to cry,
And ‘the poet I am not’ says
‘Real poets cry for more meaningful things’
And ‘the poet I am’ says ‘I am who I am and what I will be means so much to me. But still I am not the poet I wanted to be’.
And ‘the poet I am not’ says
‘Exactly. Were you less concerned with who you are and more concerned with others you might be a bit more of a poet than you are now.’
And ‘the poet I am’ is silent.
And ‘the poet I am not’is somewhere else being someone else
That ‘the poet I am and the poet I am not’ cannot see or dream.
poem by Shalom Freedman
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
In modern life nothing produces such an effect as a good platitude. It makes the whole world kin.
quote by Oscar Wilde
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
The Poetry Of Confession
THE POETRY OF CONFESSION
The poetry of confession -
The poetry of self- indulgence-
The poetry of the ‘wretch con-centered all in self’-
The poetry of moods and feelings-
Of all ideas only as they relate to the poet himself-
The poetry of desperation-
The poetry of need-
The poetry of urgency -
And serving the poet first-
Not enough of the world
Not enough of others- of other perspectives
Not formal and disciplined enough-
The poetry which is not crafted and polished
The poetry in which the need of the poet
Is more central than the quality of the poetry –
The poetry which may be too selfish to be good-
Whose moral failure makes more prominent its aesthetic flaws-
The poetry which is not so good
And not great
But quite banal and commonplace –
A poet can give his life to his poetry
And that still be nothing at all-
poem by Shalom Freedman
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The pain of a disappointed wish necessarily produces less effect upon the mind if a man has not certainly promised himself success. - De Tranquillitate Animi
Clean
Eat clean,
Live clean,
Sleep clean,
dress clean,
Walk clean,
Learn clean,
Play clean,
Think clean,
dance clean,
Talk clean,
Sing clean,
work clean,
Because the world around you is watching what you do;
You are the only one on this earth,
So live and let us live too.
poem by Edward Kofi Louis
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Awesome Poet That I Know
HARINDHAR
He writes
The most amazing poems
Reminding me of Neverland
His word use so unique
He has his readers dizzy
Their inquiring minds in a whirr!
Please explain to us the meaning
Of these strange, sound effect words
So this awesome poet
By the name of, Harindhar Reddy
And I became close friends
Powerful in mind
An energetic individual
In this rat race of time
Capable in all that he does
Fellow poets intimidated
By his mastery of English literature!
poem by Persian Khushi
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Literature is at once the cause and the effect of social progress.
quote by George Henry Lewes
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Even In His Youth
Even in his youth
Even in his youth
Even in his youth he was nothing
Kept his body clean
Kept his body clean
Kept his body clean going nowhere
Daddy was ashamed
Daddy was ashamed
Daddy was ashamed he was nothing
Smears the family name
Smears the family name
Smears the family name he was something
He was born for your crew
Ive got nothing left to prove
If I die before I wake
Hope I dont come back a slave
Even in his youth, yeah yeah
song performed by by Nirvana
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Originality is not seen in single words or even sentences. Originality is the sum total of a man's thinking or his writing.
quote by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!