To tell of disappointment and misery, to thicken the darkness of futurity, and perplex the labyrinth of uncertainty, has been always a delicious employment of the poets
Interpretation
The quote suggests that poets find joy in expressing feelings of disappointment and uncertainty, enriching the emotional landscape.
Samuel Johnson reflects on the role of poets in articulating feelings of disappointment and misery, suggesting that these themes serve to deepen the complexity of human emotions. By exploring darkness and uncertainty, poets engage with the more profound aspects of the human experience, transforming pain into a form of art that resonates with others and enriches their understanding of life.
In practice
This quote can be used in a literary discussion about the themes in poetry.
To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.
He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.
To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of the weary pilgrimage.
Fly-fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.
When any anxiety or gloom of the mind takes hold of you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaining; but exert yourselves to hide it, and by endeavoring to hide it you drive it away.
A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other.
And I don't feel any form of music is beyond me in the sense of that I don't understand it or I don't have some love for some part of it.
When we don't have all the details about our characters, we have to make it up to fill in all the details. So, for me, writing and acting go hand in hand.
Since the tubes of paint used by the artist are manufactured and ready made products we must conclude that all the paintings in the world are 'readymades aided' and also works of assemblage.
Write a novel if you must, but think of money as an unlikely accident. Get your reward out of writing it, and try to be content with that.
I landed a job with Roger Corman. The job was to write the English dialogue for a Russian science fiction picture. I didn't speak any Russian. He didn't care whether I could understand what they were saying; he wanted me to make up dialogue.
From my perspective, I'm trying to stand for a generation. You know, each generation has designers who go along with it.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.