Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
There are things which some people never attempt during their whole lives, but one of these is not poetry. Poetry attacks all human beings sooner or later, and, like the measles, is mild or violent according to the age of the sufferer.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Poetry is an inevitable experience for everyone, impacting them differently based on their life stage.
Mark Twain's quote highlights the universal nature of poetry, suggesting that it is an experience that affects all people at some point in their lives. Just like the measles, which can be a mild or severe illness depending on the age of the person, the encounter with poetry can vary in intensity and significance depending on an individual's personal growth and circumstances.
Themes
PoetryExperienceHumanityEmotionAge
In practice
Example use cases
In a literature class, the teacher could use this quote to inspire students to embrace poetry.
More from Mark Twain
All quotes →The easy part of being an artist is figuring out the message that everyone else is ready to hear. The hard part is waiting for the proper lull to make the announcement.
Mark TwainRead
You can't reason with your heart; it has its own laws, and thumps about things which the intellect scorns.
Mark TwainRead
To be good is noble; but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble.
Mark TwainRead
Name the greatest of all inventors. Accident.
Mark TwainRead
In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language.
Mark TwainRead
Similar quotes
As artists, we belong to an ancient and holy tribe. We are the carriers of the truth that spirit moves through us all. When we deal with one another, we are dealing not merely with our own human personalities but also with the unseen but ever-present throng of ideas, visions, stories, poems, songs, sculptures, art-as-facts that crowd the temple of consciousness waiting their turn to be born.
Julia CameronRead
I never read anything concerning my work. I feel that criticism is a letter to the public which the author, since it is not directed to him, does not have to open and read.
Rainer Maria RilkeRead
It's hard in America as a writer of color, an actor of color, not to get caught up in race and culture. But you're also supposed to be able to write characters and scenes in a way where it's just a matter of fact, a component.
John ChoRead
Some of the young photographers today enter photography where I leave off. My "grandchildren" astound me. What I worked for they seem to be born with. So I wonder where Their affirmations of Spirit will lead. My wish for them is that their unfolding proceeds to fullness of Spirit, however astonishing or anguished their lives.
Minor WhiteRead
Jazz is a very accurate, curiously accurate accompaniment to 20th century America.
Ken BurnsRead
Writing a screenplay, for me, is like juggling. It's like, how many balls can you get in the air at once? All those ideas have to float out there to a certain point, and then they'll crystallize into a pattern.
James CameronRead