"An apt quotation is like a lamp which flings its light over the whole sentence"
About this Quote
A good quotation, Landon argues, doesn’t decorate a sentence; it electrifies it. The lamp metaphor is doing quiet work here. A lamp doesn’t add new furniture to a room, it changes what the room allows you to see. In Landon’s formulation, the “apt” quote is less a borrowed thought than a lighting cue: it reveals structure, emphasis, and mood that were already latent in the writer’s own line. That’s a high bar, and it’s also a warning against the dead weight of name-dropping.
The subtext feels especially pointed coming from a poet working in an era when quotation culture was both fashionable and weaponized. Early 19th-century print life ran on epigraphs, commonplaces, album verses, and the social cachet of literary reference. For a woman writer like Landon, whose career unfolded under intense scrutiny and gossip, the ability to marshal authority on the page mattered. Quoting the “right” voice could be a kind of passport into serious discourse; quoting poorly could look like insecurity, or worse, plagiarism.
What makes the line effective is its insistence on integration. “Flings its light over the whole sentence” suggests reach and coherence: the quotation should clarify the writer’s argument, not interrupt it. Landon gives a practical aesthetic: citation as illumination, not ornament. In a media environment where snippets are often pasted in for vibes, her test is bracingly simple: does the borrowed line make your own sentence more legible, or just more impressive-looking?
The subtext feels especially pointed coming from a poet working in an era when quotation culture was both fashionable and weaponized. Early 19th-century print life ran on epigraphs, commonplaces, album verses, and the social cachet of literary reference. For a woman writer like Landon, whose career unfolded under intense scrutiny and gossip, the ability to marshal authority on the page mattered. Quoting the “right” voice could be a kind of passport into serious discourse; quoting poorly could look like insecurity, or worse, plagiarism.
What makes the line effective is its insistence on integration. “Flings its light over the whole sentence” suggests reach and coherence: the quotation should clarify the writer’s argument, not interrupt it. Landon gives a practical aesthetic: citation as illumination, not ornament. In a media environment where snippets are often pasted in for vibes, her test is bracingly simple: does the borrowed line make your own sentence more legible, or just more impressive-looking?
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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