"From what the moderns want, we must learn what poetry should become; from what the ancients did, what poetry must be"
- Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
About this Quote
Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel's quote motivates us to learn from both the contemporary and ancient poets in order to comprehend what poetry needs to be. He suggests that we must want to the modern poets to comprehend what poetry ought to end up being, and to the ancient poets to understand what poetry must be. This quote encourages us to seek to the past and the present in order to understand the true nature of poetry. It suggests that we should not be restricted by the conventions of the past, but must instead make every effort to develop something brand-new and ingenious. By aiming to both the modern-day and ancient poets, we can acquire a much better understanding of the art form and develop something that is both timeless and appropriate. Schlegel's quote motivates us to aim to both the past and the present in order to develop something that is both meaningful and gorgeous.
"We don't attempt to have any theme for a number of the anthology, or to have any particular sequence. We just put in things that we like, and then we try to alternate the prose and the poetry"
"Concrete poets continue to turn out beautiful things, but to me they're more visual than oral, and they almost really belong on the wall rather than in a book. I haven't the least idea of where poetry is going"
"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"
