"Poetry is as precise a thing as geometry"
About this Quote
Flaubert drops this line like a gauntlet: if you think poetry is mist and mood, you’re already doing it wrong. “As precise a thing as geometry” is less a compliment than a corrective. Geometry doesn’t tolerate approximations; a proof either holds or it collapses. By yoking poetry to that unforgiving discipline, Flaubert smuggles in his core obsession: style is not decoration, it’s engineering.
The intent sits squarely in his era’s fight over Romantic gush versus crafted form. Flaubert, the patron saint of the exact word (le mot juste), wanted language to behave like a calibrated instrument. His novels, especially Madame Bovary, are built on that ethic: sentences honed until rhythm, image, and meaning lock together, not unlike angles meeting at a theorem’s conclusion. The subtext is a rebuke to the lazy myth of “inspiration.” If poetry is geometry, the poet isn’t a medium channeling feelings; the poet is a builder checking measurements, revising until the structure stands.
There’s also a sly defense of fiction hiding inside it. Coming from a novelist, the line argues that the so-called lyrical arts aren’t uniquely “true” because they’re emotional. Precision can produce intensity; constraint can sharpen desire. In a culture that often treats art as self-expression, Flaubert insists it’s closer to discipline: the freedom is earned, not granted. His wit is cool, almost clinical, and that’s the point: he’s romantic about rigor.
The intent sits squarely in his era’s fight over Romantic gush versus crafted form. Flaubert, the patron saint of the exact word (le mot juste), wanted language to behave like a calibrated instrument. His novels, especially Madame Bovary, are built on that ethic: sentences honed until rhythm, image, and meaning lock together, not unlike angles meeting at a theorem’s conclusion. The subtext is a rebuke to the lazy myth of “inspiration.” If poetry is geometry, the poet isn’t a medium channeling feelings; the poet is a builder checking measurements, revising until the structure stands.
There’s also a sly defense of fiction hiding inside it. Coming from a novelist, the line argues that the so-called lyrical arts aren’t uniquely “true” because they’re emotional. Precision can produce intensity; constraint can sharpen desire. In a culture that often treats art as self-expression, Flaubert insists it’s closer to discipline: the freedom is earned, not granted. His wit is cool, almost clinical, and that’s the point: he’s romantic about rigor.
Quote Details
| Topic | Poetry |
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