All imperfection is easier to tolerate if served up in small doses.
Wislawa SzymborskaRead
I usually write for the individual reader -though I would like to have many such readers. There are some poets who write for people assembled in big rooms, so they can live through something collectively. I prefer my reader to take my poem and have a one-on-one relationship with it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the intimate connection between a poet and the individual reader rather than the collective experience in large gatherings.
Wislawa Szymborska expresses a preference for writing poetry that engages the individual reader on a personal level. She contrasts this with poets who aim to evoke a collective experience among large audiences, suggesting that the true essence of her work lies in fostering a private and meaningful relationship between her words and each reader.
Themes
PoetryIndividualIntimacyReadingConnection
In practice
Example use cases
Use this quote in a workshop about the importance of personal interpretation in poetry.
More from Wislawa Szymborska
All quotes →I started earning a living as a poet rather early on.
Wislawa SzymborskaRead
But they know about us, they know, the four corners, and the chairs nearby us. Discerning shadows also know, and even the table keeps quiet.
Wislawa SzymborskaRead
I prefer the absurdity of writing poems to the absurdity of not writing poems.
Wislawa SzymborskaRead
I've reached the age of self-knowledge, so I don't know anything. People who claim that they know something are responsible for most of the fuss in the world.
Wislawa SzymborskaRead
Every beginning is only a sequel, after all, and the book of events is always open halfway through.
Wislawa SzymborskaRead
Similar quotes
I make pictures and someone comes in and calls it art.
Willem De KooningRead
I had to get my camera to register things that were more important than how poor they were--their pride, their strength, their spirit.
Dorothea LangeRead
If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD WAS MUSIC
Kurt VonnegutRead
When I create a collection, I approach it with a cinematic point of view-I am not designing clothes, I'm creating a world.
Ralph LaurenRead
Women do not have as great a need for poetry because their own essence is poetry.
Karl Wilhelm Friedrich SchlegelRead
There is no truer truth obtainable by Man than comes of music
Robert BrowningRead