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.
I collect my tools: sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing, intellect. Night has fallen.
Every paint-stroke takes you farther and farther away from your initial concept. And you have to be thankful for that.
A vivid image compels the whole body to follow.
At the ballet classes I took when I first came to New York, I would see great dancers like Cynthia Gregory and Lupe Serrano. I would look at them and study what they could do, and what I couldn't do. And then I'd think maybe they should try what I could do.
Poets are never allowed to be mediocre by the gods, by men or by publishers.
Sometimes, I think the best kind of poem is one in which there is an acute balance between what is humorous and that which is very serious. That balance is very hard to strike. But it can be done.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.