For the storyteller, for the arrowmaker, language does indeed represent the only chance for survival.
N. Scott MomadayRead
Sometimes, I think the best kind of poem is one in which there is an acute balance between what is humorous and that which is very serious. That balance is very hard to strike. But it can be done.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The best poetry achieves a delicate balance between humor and seriousness.
N. Scott Momaday highlights the complexity of poetry, suggesting that the most impactful poems successfully blend humor with serious themes. This balance allows the poem to resonate more deeply with the reader, as it reflects the multifaceted nature of human experience. Striking this balance is a challenging yet rewarding endeavor for poets.
Themes
PoetryHumorSeriousnessBalanceArt
In practice
Example use cases
A poetry workshop focusing on how to integrate humor into serious themes.
More from N. Scott Momaday
All quotes →There is a great good in returning to a landscape that has had extraordinary meaning in one's life. It happens that we return to such places in our minds irresistibly. There are certain villages and towns, mountains and plains that, having seen them walked in them lived in them even for a day, we keep forever in the mind's eye. They become indispensable to our well-being; they define us, and we say, I am who I am because I have been there, or there.
N. Scott MomadayRead
Writing is not a matter of choice. Writers have to write. It is somehow in their temperament, in the blood, in tradition.
N. Scott MomadayRead
My father was a painter and he taught art. He once said to me, 'I never knew an Indian child who could not draw.'
N. Scott MomadayRead
Indians are marvelous storytellers. In some ways, that oral tradition is stronger than the written tradition.
N. Scott MomadayRead
Coyotes have the gift of seldom being seen; they keep to the edge of vision and beyond, loping in and out of cover on the plains and highlands. And at night, when the whole world belongs to them, they parley at the river with the dogs, their higher, sharper voices full of authority and rebuke. They are an old council of clowns, and they are listened to.
N. Scott MomadayRead
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