A poet more than thirty years old is simply an overgrown child.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that true creativity and poetic expression are rooted in the wonder and innocence of childhood.
H. L. Mencken's quote reflects the idea that a poet's ability to perceive and express the world creatively is closely tied to a childlike perspective. As one matures, the purity and spontaneity of that view can be lost, making a poet over thirty seem like a child trapped in an adult's body, still yearning for that imaginative freedom and simplicity.
In practice
This quote could be used in a poetry workshop to inspire participants to embrace their childlike creativity.
I know a good many men of great learning-that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One and all, they tell me that they can't recall learning anything of any value in school. All that schoolmasters managed to accomplish with them was to test and determine the amount of knowledge that they had already acquired independently-and not infrequently the determination was made clumsily and inaccurately.
It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himself to the idea that after all God will not help him
It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty.
What distinguishes modern art from the art of other ages is criticism.
An actor is supposed to be a sensitive instrument. Isaac Stern takes good care of his violin. What if everybody jumped on his violin?
To emphasize only the beautiful seems to me to be like a mathematical system that only concerns itself with positive numbers.
The thing I have always tried to do is surprise people: to present them with something they didn't expect.
In the writing of poetry we never know anything for sure. We will never know if we have 'trained' or 'practised' enough. We will never be able to say that we have reached grade eight, or that we have left the grades behind and are now embarked on an advanced training.
One of the most incredible and important things about the theater is that we're creating a safe space for all feelings, but especially, ugly feelings.
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