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Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.
Thomas Gray
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote emphasizes the emotional and powerful nature of poetry as a form of expression.

Thomas Gray's quote suggests that poetry embodies the essence of human thoughts and emotions, breathing life into ideas and burning with passion through carefully chosen words. It highlights the transformative power of poetry, capable of resonating deeply with the reader or listener, invoking feelings and thoughts that linger long after the poem has been read or heard.

Themes

PoetryEmotionExpressionThoughtsWords

In practice

Example use cases

Using this quote in a speech about the importance of literature in education.

More from Thomas Gray

Visions of glory, spare my aching sight! Ye unborn ages, crowd not on my soul!
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Here rests his head upon the lap of earth, A youth to fortune and to fame unknown: Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth, And Melancholy mark'd him for her own.
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Can honor's voice provoke the silent dust, or flattery soothe the dull, cold ear of death?
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Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray; Along the cool sequester'd vale of life They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.
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Ah, happy hills! ah, pleasing shade! Ah, fields beloved in vain! Where once my careless childhood stray'd, A stranger yet to pain! I feel the gales that from ye blow A momentary bliss bestow.
Thomas GrayRead
Any fool may write a most valuable book by chance, if he will only tell us what he heard and saw with veracity.
Thomas GrayRead

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