...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 don't write for children. I write and someone says it's for children.
Much good art got made while money ruled; I like a lot of it, and hardship and poverty aren't virtues. The good news is that, since almost no one will be selling art, artists - especially emerging ones - won't have to think about turning out a consistent style or creating a brand. They'll be able to experiment as much as they want.
Poetry is not a civilizer, rather the reverse, for great poetry appeals to the most primitive instincts.
The crown of literature is poetry.
So many new things have been discovered in the 20th century that now, at the end of the century, we need some kind of synthesis, some musical language which will allow us just to write music.
Art is an experience, not an object.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.