"I came to poetry through the urgent need to denounce injustice, exploitation, humiliation. I know that's not enough to change the world. But to remain silent would have been a kind of intolerable complicity"
- Tahar Ben Jelloun
About this Quote
This quote by Tahar Ben Jelloun talks to the power of poetry to reveal the oppressions of the world. He suggests that poetry is a way to denounce the exploitation and embarrassment that exists in the world. He acknowledges that poetry alone can not alter the world, but he also recommends that to remain silent would be a kind of complicity in the injustices that exist. This quote speaks to the power of poetry to provide voice to the voiceless and to bring attention to the oppressions of the world. It also speaks to the value of speaking up against oppression, even if it might not cause instant modification. By using poetry to express his feelings, Ben Jelloun has the ability to make a declaration and to bring attention to the concerns that he appreciates.
This quote is written / told by Tahar Ben Jelloun somewhere between December 1, 1944 and today. He/she was a famous Poet from France.
The author also have 39 other quotes.
"I think Ginsberg has done more harm to the craft that I honor and live by than anybody else by reducing it to a kind of mean that enables the most dubious practitioners to claim they are poets because they think, If the kind of thing Ginsberg does is poetry, I can do that"
"Nothing truly convincing - which would possess thoroughness, vigor, and skill - has been written against the ancients as yet; especially not against their poetry"
"The dance can reveal everything mysterious that is hidden in music, and it has the additional merit of being human and palpable. Dancing is poetry with arms and legs"
"A book is sent out into the world, and there is no way of fully anticipating the responses it will elicit. Consider the responses called forth by the Bible, Homer, Shakespeare - let alone contemporary poetry or a modern novel"
"We should so provide for old age that it may have no urgent wants of this world to absorb it from meditation on the next. It is awful to see the lean hands of dotage making a coffer of the grave"
