All experiment is made on a basis of tradition; all tradition is the crystallization of experiment.
Louis MacneiceRead
The rules or 'laws' of poetry are only tentative devices, an approximate scheme. There is no Sinaitic recipe for poetry, for the individual poem is the norm.
Interpretation
Poetry is not bound by strict rules; it evolves through individual expression.
In this quote, Louis Macneice emphasizes that the conventions and rules of poetry are merely guidelines rather than absolute laws. He suggests that true poetry arises from personal creativity and expression, indicating that each poem should be seen as a unique work that transcends generalized rules.
In practice
Discussing the nature of poetry in a writing workshop.
All experiment is made on a basis of tradition; all tradition is the crystallization of experiment.
I am not yet born; O fill me with strength against those who would freeze my humanity.
Everyone is not able, or inclined, to write poetry in the narrower sense any more than everyone is qualified to take part in a walking race. But just as all of us can and do walk, so all of us can and do use language poetically.
I am not yet born; Forgive me For the sins that in me the world shall commit, my words When they speak me, my thoughts when they think me, My treason engendered by traitors beyound me, My life when they murder by means of my hands, my death when they live me.
All that I would like to be is human, having a share_x000D_ in a civilized, articulate and well-adjusted_x000D_ community where the mind is given its due_x000D_ but the body is not distrusted
Great art picks up where nature ends.
If you write a letter of resignation or something with an agenda, you're simply using a pen to record what you have thought out. In a poem, the pen is more like a flashlight, a Geiger counter, or one of those metal detectors that people walk around beaches with.
On film you put all your energies into a single glance.
Very quickly a painting is turned into a facsimile of itself when one becomes so familiar with with it that one recognizes it without looking at it.
An artist may have burdens the ordinary citizen doesn't know, but the ordinary citizen has burdens that many artists never even touch.
A great production of a black comedy is better than a mediocre production of a comedy of errors.
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