There are many sham diamonds in this life which pass for real, and vice versa.
William Makepeace ThackerayRead
if you are not allowed to touch the heart sometimes in spite of syntax, and are not to be loved until you all know the difference between trimeter and trameter, may all Poetry go to the deuce, and every schoolmaster perish miserably!
Interpretation
What this quote means
True art and poetry require emotional connection, not just technical expertise.
In this quote, Thackeray emphasizes the importance of emotional expression in poetry over strict adherence to technical rules. He argues that if one must prioritize technical precision over genuine feeling, then the essence of poetry is lost, and the art form is rendered meaningless. This highlights the tension between form and emotion in creative work.
Themes
PoetryEmotionArtExpressionTechnique
In practice
Example use cases
During a literature class discussing the role of emotion in poetry.
More from William Makepeace Thackeray
All quotes →There's a great power of imagination about these little creatures, and a creative fancy and belief that is very curious to watch . . . I am sure that horrid matter-of-fact child-rearers . . . do away with the child's most beautiful privilege. I am determined that Anny shall have a very extensive and instructive store of learning in Tom Thumbs, Jack-the-Giant-Killers, etc.
William Makepeace ThackerayRead
When you look at me, when you think of me, I am in paradise.
William Makepeace ThackerayRead
And in those varieties of pain of which we spoke anon, what a part of confidante has that poor teapot played ever since the kindly plant was introduced among us! What myriads of women have cried over it, to be sure! What sickbeds it has smoked by! What fevered lips have received refreshment from out of it! Nature meant very gently by women when she made that teaplant; and with a little thought what a series of pictures and groups the fancy may conjure up and assemble round the teapot and cup!
William Makepeace ThackerayRead
The play is done; the curtain drops,_x000D_ _x000D_ Slow falling to the prompter's bell_x000D_ _x000D_ A moment yet the actor stops_x000D_ _x000D_ And looks around to say farewell.
William Makepeace ThackerayRead
The moral world has no particular objection to vice, but an insuperable repugnance to hearing vice called by its proper name.
William Makepeace ThackerayRead
Similar quotes
Nothing in art should seem accidental, not even movement
Edgar DegasRead
I have desired, like every artist, to create a little world out of the beautiful, pleasant, and significant things of this marred and clumsy world, and to show in a vision something of the face of Ireland to any of my own people who would look where I bid them. I have therefore written down accurately and candidly much that I have heard and seen, and, except by way of commentary, nothing that I have merely imagined.
William Butler YeatsRead
My art, what do you want to say about it? Do you think you can explain the merits of a picture to those who do not see them? . . . I can find the best and clearest words to explain my meaning, and I have spoken to the most intelligent people about art, and they have not understood; but among people who understand, words are not necessary, you say humph, he, ha and everything has been said.
Edgar DegasRead
It is quite cruel that a poet cannot wander through his regions of enchantment without having a critic, forever, like the old man of the sea, upon his back.
Marianne MooreRead
Pleasure to me is wonder—the unexplored, the unexpected, the thing that is hidden and the changeless thing that lurks behind superficial mutability.
H. P. LovecraftRead
Finishing a book is just like you took a child out in the back yard and shot it.
Truman CapoteRead