"A poet can write about a man slaying a dragon, but not about a man pushing a button that releases a bomb"
- W. H. Auden
About this Quote
This quote by W. H. Auden talks to the power of imagination and the capability of a poet to produce a story that is bigger than life. It recommends that a poet can create a narrative that is interesting and brave, such as a male slaying a dragon, however that a poet can not create a story that is mundane and uninspiring, such as a male pressing a button to launch a bomb. This quote indicates that the power of a poet lies in their capability to produce stories that are larger than life which inspire people to think and feel. It likewise recommends that the ordinary elements of life are not appropriate for poetic expression. This quote speaks with the power of the imagination and the ability of a poet to create stories that are meaningful and inspiring.
This quote is written / told by W. H. Auden between February 21, 1907 and September 29, 1973. He was a famous Poet from England.
The author also have 59 other quotes.
"After the atomic bombs were dropped, the war ended and we went into Tokyo Bay with the rest of the fleet, the Missouri and the rest of them, while they signed the terms of surrender that ended the war"
"On the eighteenth of December 1972, when we thought we were getting another of the hundreds of little tactical air raids, we heard the bombs going in out there in the railroad yards and this went on for about thirty minutes"
"I think it has other roots, has to do, in part, with a general anxiety in contemporary life... nuclear bombs, inequality of possibility and chance, inequality of goods allotted to us, a kind of general racist, unjust attitude that is pervasive"
"I do not believe that civilization will be wiped out in a war fought with the atomic bomb. Perhaps two-thirds of the people of the earth will be killed"
