"No poem, not even Shakespeare or Milton or Chaucer, is ever strong enough to totally exclude every crucial precursor text or poem"
- Harold Bloom
About this Quote
This quote by Harold Bloom talks to the concept that no poem, no matter how fantastic, is ever strong enough to stand alone. Even the works of the best poets, such as Shakespeare, Milton, and Chaucer, are built on the works of their predecessors. Bloom is suggesting that all poems, no matter how great, are indebted to the works that came prior to them. He is stressing the importance of recognizing the influence of past deal with the present. Flower is likewise suggesting that no poem is ever genuinely original, as it is always built on the works of those who came previously. He is stressing the importance of recognizing the significance of the past in today. By doing so, we can much better value the works of the terrific poets and the influence they have actually had on our culture.
This quote is written / told by Harold Bloom between July 11, 1930 and October 14, 2019. He was a famous Critic from USA.
The author also have 26 other quotes.
"With the question of the effect of a poem, the topic of investigation shifts from that of textual autonomy to textual reception - to the issue of what we actually look for or find in reading a poem"
"The heart of the matter seems to me to be the direct interaction between one's making a poem in English and a poem in the language that one understands and values. I don't see how you can do it otherwise"
"A revolutionary poem will not tell you who or when to kill, what and when to burn, or even how to theorize. It reminds you... where and when and how you are living and might live, it is a wick of desire"