A very intimate sense of the expressiveness of outward things, which ponders, listens, penetrates, where the earlier, less developed consciousness passed lightly by, is an important element in the general temper of our modern poetry.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the depth of perception in modern poetry that engages with the world more profoundly than earlier expressions.
Walter Pater's quote highlights the evolution of consciousness in the appreciation of art and poetry. It suggests that modern poetry embodies a deeper understanding and an intimate connection with the external world, contrasting with previous approaches that may have simply skimmed the surface. This evolution signifies a significant change in how emotions and experiences are expressed through artistic mediums.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about the evolution of artistic expression in modern literature.
To burn always with this hard, gemlike flame, to maintain this ecstasy, is success in life . . . Not the fruit of experience, but experience itself, is the end . . . For art comes to you professing frankly to give nothing but the highest quality to your moments as they pass, and simply for those moments' sake.
Many attempts have been made by writers on art and poetry to define beauty in the abstract, to express it in the most general terms, to find some universal formula for it.
Books are a refuge, a sort of cloistral refuge, from the vulgarities of the actual world.
Art comes to you proposing frankly to give nothing but the highest quality to your moments as they pass.
At first sight experience seems to bury us under a flood of external objects, pressing upon us with a sharp and importunate reality, calling us out of ourselves in a thousand forms of action.
Not the fruit of experience, but experience itself, is the end.
If I could say with words what my dances express, I wouldn’t have a reason to dance.
Because I don't play guitar any more, African harmonies and rhythms have been an inspiration to me. I love the raw origin of the sound. It complements my voice and words naturally.
There comes a moment when it is no longer you who takes the photograph, but receives the way to do it quite naturally and fully.
It was not in me It came and went I wanted to hold it It was held by wine (I no longer know what it was)
I've attended many concerts where I felt let down and I was wishing it would be something else. Not that it's their duty to please me, but at the same time, I think a lot about what it's like through the eyes of the consumer, the fan. I want not to pander to the audience, but to be aware of them.
...the moon that hung over the garden like some great priceless pearl, flawed and blemished with grey shadowy ridges as only a very great beauty can risk being.
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