But poets were not considered dangerous and they were advised to exercise self-censorship. At most, poets were requested not to write at all. I took advantage of this negative liberty.
Eugenio MontaleRead
There is also poetry written to be shouted in a square in front of an enthusiastic crowd. This occurs especially in countries where authoritarian regimes are in power.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the role of poetry as a form of expression, particularly in politically charged environments.
Eugenio Montale's quote emphasizes the power of poetry as a medium for vocal expression, especially in contexts where free speech is suppressed by authoritarian regimes. It suggests that poetry can serve as a rallying cry for the oppressed, allowing for communal solidarity and emotional release in front of passionate audiences, transcending mere literary appreciation to become a tool for resistance and empowerment.
In practice
During a literary event discussing the role of art in activism.
But poets were not considered dangerous and they were advised to exercise self-censorship. At most, poets were requested not to write at all. I took advantage of this negative liberty.
There is poetry even in prose, in all the great prose which is not merely utilitarian or didactic: there exist poets who write in prose or at least in more or less apparent prose; millions of poets write verses which have no connection with poetry.
Mass communication, radio, and especially television, have attempted, not without success, to annihilate every possibility of solitude and reflection.
It has often been observed that the repercussion of poetic language on prose language can be considered a decisive cut of a whip.
I have always knocked at the door of that wonderful and terrible enigma which is life.
For my part, if I consider poetry as an object, I maintain that it is born of the necessity of adding a vocal sound (speech) to the hammering of the first tribal music.
I never promised the universe that I would write brilliantly; I only promised the universe that I would write.
Performance is there, and if you are not there in that moment it happened, it just stays in the memory. It's so immaterial and something this immaterial is very difficult to collect. Its difficult to buy, its how we can buy immaterial art.
The poignancy of a photograph comes from looking back to a fleeting moment in a floating world. The transitoriness is what creates the sense of the sacred
Lie to me by the moonlight. Do a fabulous story.
Realism should only be the means of expression of religious genius... or, at the other extreme, the artistic expressions of monkeys which are quite satisfied with mere imitation. In fact, art is never realistic though sometimes it is tempted to be. To be really realistic a description would have to be endless.
Everything that I saw became something to be made, and it had to be exactly as it was, with nothing added. It was a new freedom: there was no longer the need to compose. The subject was there already made, and I could take from everything. It all belonged to me: a glass roof of a factory, with its broken and patched panels, lines on a road map, a corner of a Braque painting, paper fragments in the street. It was all the same: anything goes.
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