"The poem is an act beyond paraphrase because what is being said is always inseparable from the way it is being said."

Edward Hirsch Literature See all quotes by Edward Hirsch →

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“Inspiration is inbreathing, indwelling, poetry can never be entirely willed. It may be true a poet is given only a single line but that line is a gift from the unconscious, intution , a perception.”

“Poetry is a form of necessary speech.”

“The poem is an original and unique creation, but it is reading and recitation: participation.”

“Examples of Hirsch poems”

“Extract links Hirsch's 'Poets Glossary'”

“For most of history poetry has been an oral art, it retains the vestiges of orality, an experience embedded in the sensuality of sounds.”

Resonant Thoughts

"It is as though a star throws the whole secret history of its being into its spectrum, and we have only to learn how to read it aright in order to solve the most abstruse problems of the physical Univ…"

— Herbert Dingle

Philosophy1890–1978

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"The real world with its common logic pushes us toward catastrophe. The artists seek in his work to free himself from this weight. Art is being transformed into politics, love into trade, education int…"

— Bram van Velde

Art1895–1981

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"Under the limitation of armaments treaty a large saving in outlay and a considerable decrease in maintenance of the Navy has been accomplished. We should maintain the policy of constantly working towa…"

— Calvin Coolidge

Politics1780–1853

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"If a possible — nay, reasonable — variation in only one of the forces conditioning the human race, that of gravitation, could so modify our outward form, appearance, and proportions as to make us to a…"

— William Crookes

Psychology1832–1919

#philosophy