Just as a new scientific discovery manifests something that was already latent in the order of nature, and at the same time is logically related to the total structure of the existing science, so the new poem manifests something that was already latent in the order of words.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that new poems reveal ideas that already exist in language, much like scientific discoveries unveil hidden truths in nature.
Northrop Frye's quote draws an analogy between the emergence of new scientific discoveries and the creation of new poetry. He implies that just as science uncovers latent truths within the natural world, poetry unveils deeper meanings that were always present within language itself. Both phenomena are interconnected with existing frameworks, reinforcing the idea that innovation is often rooted in prior knowledge and structure.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about the creative process in poetry during a literature class.
A reader who quarrels with postulates, who dislikes Hamlet because he does not believe that there are ghosts or that people speak in pentameters, clearly has no business in literature. He cannot distinguish fiction from fact, and belongs in the same category as the people who send checks to radio stations for the relief of suffering heroines in soap operas.
The Bible is not interested in arguing, because if you state a thesis of belief you have already stated it's opposite; if you say, I believe in God, you have already suggested the possibility of not believing in him. [p.250]
Literature is a human apocalypse, man's revelation to man, and criticism is not a body of adjudications, but the awareness of that revelation, the last judgement of mankind.
To bring anything really to life in literature we can't be lifelike: we have to be literature-like
The world of literature is a world where there is no reality except that of the human imagination.
We do not live in a centred space any more, but have to create our own centres.
Photography is the easiest thing in the world if one is willing to accept pictures that are flaccid, limp, bland, banal, indiscriminately informative, and pointless. But if one insists in a photograph that is both complex and vigorous it is almost impossible
A work-room should be like an old shoe; no matter how shabby, it's better than a new one.
In writing, I apply my feminine side and respect the mystery involved in creation.
When I'm making stuff, the thing that excites me most is not the result, but the process and trying to do something I've never done before.
A comic will always be more 'personal' than a DVD or CD, both of which require electronic 'players' to decode their content. With comics, the reader is the player so the engagement with the material is always more fundamental and dynamic. Reading comics is a much less passive activity than consuming CDs and DVDs.
It is not architectural achievement that makes the structures of earlier times seem to us so full of significance but the circumstance that antique temples, Roman basilicas, and even the cathedrals of the Middle Ages are not the works of single personalities but creations of entire epochs.
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