"All one's inventions are true, you can be sure of that. Poetry is as exact a science as geometry"
- Gustave Flaubert
About this Quote
In this quote, Gustave Flaubert is revealing his belief that all of one's creations, or developments, hold true in their own method. He suggests that even though they may not be based on factual evidence, they still hold a specific reality and validity. Flaubert then goes on to compare poetry to geometry, mentioning that it is just as precise and accurate as a scientific discipline. This highlights the concept that poetry is not just a form of artistic expression, but likewise an approach of understanding and analyzing the world around us. Flaubert's words remind us that imagination and creativity can hold simply as much truth as logic and factor.
"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"
