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Local images have one kind of reality. 'U.S. 1' will, I hope, have that kind and another, too. Poetry can extend the document.
Muriel Rukeyser
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Poetry provides a deeper, multifaceted perception of reality beyond mere documentation.

In this quote, Muriel Rukeyser suggests that local images and experiences offer one aspect of reality. However, she believes that poetry has the power to expand and enrich this understanding, creating a layered reality that combines the literal and the imaginative, thus extending the meanings and implications of everyday experiences.

Themes

PoetryRealityArtImaginationExpression

In practice

Example use cases

In a poetry reading, one might use this quote to discuss the transformative power of words.

More from Muriel Rukeyser

The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.
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A work of art is one through which the consciousness of the artist is able to give its emotions to anyone who is prepared to receive them.
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In our period, they say there is free speech. They say there is no penalty for poets, There is no penalty for writing poems. They say this. This is the penalty.
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Nourish beginnings, let us nourish beginnings. Not all things are blest, but the seeds of all things are blest. The blessing is in the seed.
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The town of Gauley Bridge stands as a pattern for all those places where people are linked even in the middle of their suffering, where people fight against an evil condition so that other people need not go through the same fight.
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Always our wars have been our confessions of weakness
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