"Poetry is a sword of lightning, ever unsheathed, which consumes the scabbard that would contain it"
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
About this Quote
This quote by Percy Bysshe Shelley speaks with the power of poetry. He compares it to a sword of lightning, a tool of tremendous power that is always prepared to be made use of. The allegory of the sword being ever unsheathed implies that verse is constantly readily available to be used, and that it is a force that can not be consisted of. The suggestion of the sword eating the scabbard that would certainly have it recommends that poetry is also effective to be restrained, and that any effort to do so will be futile. This quote speaks with the power of poetry to move as well as inspire people, and also to challenge the status quo. It is a pointer that verse is a powerful device that can be used to express suggestions as well as feelings, and also to cause modification.
"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"
