It is necessary to study these words you have written, for the words have a longer history than you have and say more than you know.
George OppenRead
Clarity, clarity, surely clarity is the most beautiful thing in the world, A limited, limiting clarity I have not and never did have any motive of poetry But to achieve clarity.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The pursuit of clarity in expression is the essence of creating meaningful art.
In this quote, George Oppen emphasizes that the primary goal of poetry and artistic expression is to achieve clarity. He suggests that clarity is not only vital for communication but is also the most beautiful aspect of art, allowing the audience to truly understand and appreciate the work's essence without confusion or ambiguity.
Themes
ClarityPoetryArtCommunicationBeauty
In practice
Example use cases
In a creative writing workshop when discussing the importance of clear expression.
More from George Oppen
All quotes →Similar quotes
I eagerly await new concepts and processes. I believe that the electronic image will be the next major advance. Such systems will have their own inherent and inescapable structural characteristics, and the artist and functional practitioner will again strive to comprehend and control them.
Ansel AdamsRead
He was one of the masters of the thriller and he really was one of the great signposts, because he took the spy thriller out of the gentility of the drawing room and into the back streets of Istanbul and where it all really happened, ... The Day of the Jackal.
Frederick ForsythRead
What reinforces the content of a photograph is the sense of rhythm - the relationship between shapes and values.
Henri Cartier-BressonRead
What is a poet? An unhappy man who hides deep anguish in his heart, but whose lips are so formed that when the sigh and cry pass through them, it sounds like lovely music.... And people flock around the poet and say: 'Sing again soon' - that is, 'May new sufferings torment your soul but your lips be fashioned as before, for the cry would only frighten us, but the music, that is blissful.
Soren KierkegaardRead
The creation of a work of art, like an act of love, is our one small 'yes' at the center of a vast 'no.'
Gore VidalRead
Music as background to me becomes like a mosquito, an insect. In the studio we have big speakers, and to me that's the way music should be listened to. When I listen to music, I want to just listen to music.
David LynchRead