...we shall board our imagined ship and wildly sail among sacred islands of the mad till death shatters the fabulous stars and makes us real.
Sylvia PlathRead
Poetry at its best can do you a lot of harm.
Interpretation
Poetry can evoke strong emotions and reactions that may be painful or unsettling.
Sylvia Plath's quote suggests that while poetry is often celebrated for its beauty and ability to express deep emotions, it can also have a darker side, inflicting harm by conjuring difficult feelings or memories. This duality reflects the power of art to connect with the complexities of human experience, sometimes leading to anguish or introspection that can be overwhelming.
In practice
Using this quote in a discussion about the emotional impact of literature during a poetry reading event.
...we shall board our imagined ship and wildly sail among sacred islands of the mad till death shatters the fabulous stars and makes us real.
The hardest thing, I think, is to live richly in the present, without letting it be tainted & spoiled out of fear for the future or regret for a badly-managed past.
It is as if my life were magically run by two electric currents: joyous positive and despairing negative--which ever is running at the moment dominates my life, floods it.
You walked in, laughing, tears welling confused, mingling in your throat. How can you be so many women to so many people, oh you strange girl?
I keep wanting to crawl back into the womb.
It's the living, the eating, the sleeping that everyone needs. Ideas don't matter so much after all. My three best friends are Catholic. I can't see their beliefs, but I can see the things they love to do on earth. When you come right down to it, I do believe in the freedom of the individual.
I consider skateboarding an art form, a lifestyle and a sport. 'Action sport' would be the least offensive categorization.
Unfortunately, there aren't enough interesting acting roles in New Zealand to sustain a career.
I go to conventions and universities and talk to young filmmakers and everybody's making a zombie movie! It's because it's easy to get the neighbors to come out, put some ketchup on them.
We Orientals find beauty not only in the thing itself but in the pattern of the shadows, the light and darkness which that thing provides.
The more the technocrats programme it down to the smallest detail, the more the powerful manipulate it, football continues to be the art of the unforeseeable. When you least expect it, the impossible occurs: the dwarf teaches the giant a lesson, and a scraggy, bow-legged black man makes an athlete sculpted in Greece look ridiculous.
Fashion is a reflection of our times. Fashion can tell you everything that's going on in the world with a strong fashion image.
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