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.
If a poet is anybody, he is somebody to whom things made matter very little - somebody who is obsessed by Making.
But the only rhyme he could summon for 'out' was 'sauerkraut,' which lacked poetic glory. He let it go. The right line would come in time. That was the thing about poetry. It crept up through the draws and coulees of the brain.
Camera lies all the time. It’s all it does is lie, because when you choose this moment instead of this moment, when you… the moment you’ve made a choice, you’re lying about something larger. Lying is an ugly word. I don’t mean lying. But any artist picks and chooses what they want to paint or write about or say. Photographers are the same.
My hope is that witnessing the beautiful harmony created by merging different musical melodies will help people realize the beauty in our own differences.
Acting is not about being someone different. It's finding the similarity in what is apparently different, then finding myself in there.
I'm not performing anymore. I reveal myself to the audience. I reveal myself. That's the show now.
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