After the last line of a poem, nothing follows except literary criticism.
Interpretation
Literary criticism often overshadows the emotional and artistic essence of poetry.
Joseph Brodsky's quote reflects on the idea that once a poem concludes, the subsequent discussions and analyses often focus on critiquing the work rather than appreciating its artistic beauty and emotional impact. This suggests that the act of interpretation can sometimes detract from the original experience of the piece, highlighting a tension between artistry and academic criticism.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of art, one might use this quote to emphasize the need for pure appreciation rather than analysis.
Basically, it's hard for me to assess myself, a hardship not only prompted by the immodesty of the enterprise, but because one is not capable of assessing himself, let alone his work. However, if I were to summarize, my main interest is the nature of time. That's what interests me most of all. What time can do to a man.
One always pulls the trigger out of self-interest and quotes history to avoid responsibility or pangs of conscience.
On the whole, infinity is a fairly palpable aspect of this business of publishing, if only because it extends a dead author's existence beyond the limits he envisioned, or provides a living author with a future he cannot measure. In other words, this business deals with the future which we all prefer to regard as unending.
The invention of ethical and political doctrines, which blossomed into our own social sciences, is a product of times when things appeared manageable. The same goes for the criticism of those doctrines, though as a voice from the past, this criticism proved prophetic.
Try not to pay attention to those who will try to make life miserable for you. There will be a lot of those - in the official capacity as well as the self-appointed.
To put it in plain language, Russia is that country where the name of a writer appears not on the cover of his book, but on the door of his prison cell.
I can't distract myself enough here, for sketches to a new opera are constantly buzzing around in my head, to the extent that I need all my strength to wrest myself from them.
Perhaps the mission of an artist is to interpret beauty to people - the beauty within themselves.
[Lee Morgan] was the only young cat that scared me when he played. He had so much fire and natural feeling. I had more technique, but he had that feeling. People seemed to like him more than they like me at the beginning.
Successful fiction does not need to be validated by 'real life'; I cringe whenever a writer is asked how much of a novel is 'real'.
What I wanted in life always was to write something as good as 'Pinocchio.' I wanted to write. I wanted to evolve. I wanted to grow.
Like the collector, the photographer is animated by a passion that, even when it appears to be for the present, is linked to a sense of the past.
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