EPITAPH Now I'm not the brightest knife in the drawer, but I know a couple things about this life: poverty silence, impermanence discipline and mystery The world is not illusory, we are From crimson thread to toe tag If you are not disturbed there is something seriously wrong with you, I'm sorry And I know who I am I'll be a voice coming from nowhere, inside-- be glad for me.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the nature of life and the inevitability of personal struggles and identity.
Franz Wright's quote delves into the complexities of existence, acknowledging themes such as poverty, silence, and the fleeting nature of life. It suggests that the world is genuine rather than an illusion and emphasizes the importance of self-awareness and acceptance of one's voice and identity, even in the face of adversity. The closing line implies that one should find solace and joy within themselves amidst life's challenges.
In practice
In a reflective speech about overcoming challenges, one might use this quote to illustrate the importance of self-acceptance.
We know there are poets who are chosen: by what or whom, we no more know than what lies beyond our final breath, or what caused a certain action which resulted in the fulfillment or the desecration and collapse of what we most cared for in life.
I am in no way different from anyone else, that my predicament, my sense of aloneness or isolation may be precisely what unites me with everyone.
When I'm in certain moods, a conversation will start up in my head, and suddenly I'll realize that the language has reached a very high and interesting level, and then lines and stanzas will just kind of appear, full-blown.
I've always envied people who compose music or paint, because they don't have to be bothered with the sort of crude mess that language normally is, in everyday life and in the way we use it.
The humiliation I go through/when I think of my past/can only be described as grace./We are created by being destroyed.
I don't think any of us can speak frankly about pain until we are no longer enduring it.
When a person goes to a country and finds their newspapers filled with nothing but good news, he can bet there are good men in jail.
Other people teach us who we are. Their attitudes to us are the mirror in which we learn to see ourselves, but the mirror is distorted. We are, perhaps, rather dimly aware of the immense power of our social enviornment.
The thing that haunts a man the most is what he isn't ordered to do.
Faith... must be enforced by reason... when faith becomes blind it dies.
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.