Anyone with gumption and a sharp mind will take the measure of two things: what's said and what's done.
Seamus HeaneyRead
The kind of poet who founds and reconstitutes values is somebody like Yeats or Whitman - these are public value-founders.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that certain poets have the power to shape and redefine societal values through their work.
Seamus Heaney emphasizes that poets such as W.B. Yeats and Walt Whitman play a crucial role in society by creating and reshaping values through their artistic expressions. These poets not only reflect the prevailing cultural sentiments but actively contribute to the formation of public values, influencing how people perceive and understand the world around them.
Themes
PoetValuesYeatsWhitmanInfluenceSociety
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of literature in education.
More from Seamus Heaney
All quotes βWhat I've said before, only half in joke, is that everybody in Ireland is famous. Or, maybe better, say everybody is familiar.
Seamus HeaneyRead
The kinds of truth that art gives us many, many times are small truths. They don't have the resonance of an encyclical from the Pope stating an eternal truth, but they partake of the quality of eternity. There is a sort of timeless delight in them.
Seamus HeaneyRead
If self is a location, so is love: Bearings taken, markings, cardinal points, Options, obstinacies, dug heels, and distance, Here and there and now and then, a stance.
Seamus HeaneyRead
In my early teens, I acquired a kind of representative status: went on behalf of the family to wakes and funerals and so on. And I would be counted on as an adult contributor when it came to farm work - the hay in the summertime, for example.
Seamus HeaneyRead
I think that water is immediately interesting. It's just, as an element, it is full of life. It is associated with origin; it is bright - it reflects you.
Seamus HeaneyRead
Similar quotes
You can be Eastern or Burmese or what have you, but the function of the body and the awareness of the body results in dance and you become a dancer, not just a human being.
Martha GrahamRead
I see my finished platinum print (in the viewfinder) in all its desired qualities, before my exposure.
Edward WestonRead
Pop art is about liking things.
Andy WarholRead
I'm a brown girl from a Punjabi pind raised in Toronto. I don't expect literary critics and purists to understand the nuances of my experiences, and the experiences of the people around me... And my tradition holds that there is a magic in the written word. So how I write, what I write of, and why I write all comes naturally.
Rupi KaurRead
Art requires imagination. It requires Creativity. Creativity requires experience and experience comes from your life. And your life is expressed in your art.
Bruce LeeRead
And, since the model he faithfully copies is not going to be hung up next to the picture, since the picture is going to be there on its own, it is of no interest whether it is an accurate copy of the model.
Lucian FreudRead