Islands are metaphors of the heart, no matter what poet says otherwise.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that islands symbolize the emotional and inner states of individuals, despite differing interpretations from various poets.
In this quote, Jeanette Winterson expresses the idea that islands serve as powerful metaphors for the heart and emotions. They represent isolation, self-discovery, and the unique experiences that shape a person's innermost feelings. Although poets may have different views on the symbolism of islands, Winterson asserts the intrinsic connection between these landforms and our emotional landscapes, emphasizing the significance of personal interpretation in understanding one's heart.
In practice
In a speech about personal growth, one might say: 'As Jeanette Winterson beautifully states, βIslands are metaphors of the heartβ emphasizing the personal journey each of us goes through.'
What is remembered is not a deed in stone but a metaphor. Meta = above. Pheren = to carry. That which is carried above the literalness of life. A way of thinking that avoids the problems of gravity. The word won't let me down. The single word that can release me from all that unuttered weight.
Reading things that are relevant to the facts of your life is of limited value. The facts are, after all, only the facts, and the yearning passionate part of you will not be met there. That is why reading ourselves as a fiction as well as fact is so liberating. The wider we read the freer we become.
I have a list of titles that I leave at the [library] desk, because they are bound to be written some day, and it's best to be ahead of the queue.
Woolf wanted to say dangerous things in Orlando but she did not want to say them in the missionary position.
In that house, you will find my heart. You must break in, Henri, and get it back for me.' Was she mad? We had been talking figuratively. Her heart was in her body like mine. I tried to explain this to her, but she took my hand and put it against her chest. Feel for yourself.
History is a string full of knots, the best you can do is admire it, and maybe tie it up a bit more. History is a hammock for swinging and a game for playing.
The history of humanity is not a hotel where someone can rent a room whenever it suits him; nor is it a vehicle which we board or get out of at random. Our past will be for us a burden beneath which we can only collapse for as long as we refuse to understand the present and fight for a better future. Only then β but from that moment on β will the burden become a blessing, that is, a weapon in the battle for freedom.
Law in general is human reason, inasmuch as it governs all the inhabitants of the earth: the political and civil laws of each nation ought to be only the particular cases in which human reason is applied.
Ye have cast out yer brothers for devils and now complain ye, lamenting, that ye've been left to fight alone.
We have to build the Republic of Heaven where we are, because for us there is no elsewhere.
Injustice, poverty, slavery, ignorance - these may be cured by reform or revolution. But men do not live only by fighting evils. They live by positive goals, individual and collective, a vast variety of them, seldom predictable, at times incompatible.
A quarrel is quickly settled when deserted by one party; there is no battle unless there be two.
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