"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.
"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"
