What is it precisely, that feeling of 'returning' from a poem? Something is lighter, softer, larger - then it fades, but never completely.
Interpretation
The quote captures the ephemeral yet impactful nature of poetry, suggesting that it leaves a lasting impression on the reader.
In this quote by Ian McEwan, the author reflects on the transformative experience that poetry can evoke in its readers. The feeling of 'returning' from a poem indicates a state of enlightenment, as if one has accessed a deeper understanding or a heightened emotional state. This transformation may be transient, fading away after the experience, but its essence remains with the reader, influencing their perception and feelings.
In practice
In a literary discussion at a book club, one could use this quote to emphasize the emotional power of poetry.
Watching him during the first several minutes of his delivery, Cecilia felt a pleasant sinking sensation in her stomach as she contemplated how deliciously self-destructive it would be, almost erotic, to be married to a man so nearly handsome, so hugely rich, so unfathomably stupid. He would fill her with his big-faced children, all of them loud, boneheaded boys with a passion for guns and football and aeroplanes.
My needs were simple I didn't bother much with themes or felicitous phrases and skipped fine descriptions of weather, landscapes and interiors. I wanted characters I could believe in, and I wanted to be made curious about what was to happen to them. Generally, I preferred people to be falling in and out of love, but I didn't mind so much if they tried their hand at something else. It was vulgar to want it, but I liked someone to say 'Marry me' by the end.
It marked the beginning and, of course, an end. At that moment a chapter, no, a whole stage of my closed. Had I known, and had there been a spare second or two, I might have allowed myself a little nostalgia.
There are ways in which art can have a longer reach than politics.
And now she was back in the world, not one she could make, but the one that had made her, and she felt herself shrinking under the early evening sky. She was weary of being outdoors, but she was not ready to go in. Was that really all there was in life, indoors or out? Wasn't there somewhere else for people to go?
Imagining what it is like to be someone other than yourself is at the core of our humanity. It is the essence of compassion, and it is the beginning of morality.
By and large, most of the work that we see in the great museums throughout the world are populated with people who don't happen to look like me.
My life, my reading, everything about me revolves around the cinema. So for me, cinema is life, and vice-versa.
You want a poem to unsettle something. There's a deep and interesting kind of troubling that poems do, which is to say, 'This is what you think you're certain of, and I'm going to show you how that's not enough. There's something more that might be even more rewarding if you're willing to let go of what you already know.'
My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.
A concert is not a live rendition of our album. It's a theatrical event.
The goal of an artist is to create the definitive work that cannot be surpassed.
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