Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads.
Marianne MooreRead
Not till the poets among us can be "literalists of the imagination"-above insolence and triviality and can present for inspection, "imaginary gardens with real toads in them." shall we have it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of creative imagination in poetry and art, where ideas should blend reality with imaginative elements.
Marianne Moore's quote suggests that for poets and artists to truly capture the essence of life, they must transcend superficiality and trivial concerns. They need to merge the imaginative aspects of their work with tangible, realistic elements, creating a balance that evokes deeper understanding and appreciation in their audience. The phrase 'imaginary gardens with real toads' symbolizes the interplay between the dreamlike and the authentic in art.
Themes
PoetryImaginationArtRealityCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
In a literary discussion about the role of imagination in poetry.
More from Marianne Moore
All quotes →In a poem the excitement has to maintain itself. I am governed by the pull of the sentence as the pull of a fabric is governed by gravity.
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Originality is... a by-product of sincerity.
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It is quite cruel that a poet cannot wander through his regions of enchantment without having a critic, forever, like the old man of the sea, upon his back.
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I see no reason for calling my work poetry except that there is no other category in which to put it.
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If technique is of no interest to a writer, I doubt that the writer is an artist.
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