"We may say that a poem in the first place should offer us new perceptions, not only of the exterior universe, but of human experience as well; it should add, in other words, to what we have already seen. This is the elementary function for the reader. The corresponding function for the poet is a sharpening and training of his sensibilities; the very exigencies of the medium as he employs it in the act of perception should force him to the discovery of values which he never would have found without the convening of all the conditions of that particular act, conditions one or more of which will be the necessity of solving some particular difficulty such as the location of a rhyme or the perfection of a cadence with disturbance to the remainder of the poem."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
The Morality of Poetry
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Yvor_Winters
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Yvor Winters
Arthur Yvor Winters (October 17, 1900 – January 26, 1968) was an American poet and literary critic.
12 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Yvor Winters →
Related Quotes
"It will be seen that what I desire of a poem is a clear understanding of motive, and a just evaluation of feeling; th…"
"Now verse is more valuable than prose … for the simple reasons that its rhythms are faster and more highly organized …"
"To say that a poet is justified in employing a disintegrating form in order to express a feeling of disintegration, i…"
"I mean to indicate the reading of poetry not merely for the sensual ear, but for the mind's ear as well; yet the mind…"
"Poetry, as nearly as I can understand it, is a statement in words about a human experience, whether the experience be…"
"And you are here beside me, small, Contained and fragile, and intent On things that I but half recall — Yet going whi…"
"The rain of matter upon sense Destroys me momently. The score: There comes what will come."
"Metal, intrinsic value, deep and dense, Preanimate, inimitable, still, Real, but an evil with no human sense, Dispers…"
"What end impersonal, what breathless age, Incontinent of quiet and of years, What calm catastrophe will yet assuage T…"
"The land is numb. It stands beneath the feet, and one may come Walking securely, till the sea extends Its limber marg…"