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Acknowledgement, and celebration, of mystery probably constitutes the most consistent theme of my poetry from its very beginnings. Because it is a matter of which I am conscious, it is possible, however imprecisely, to call it an intellectual position; but it is one which emphasizes the incapacity of reason alone (much though I delight in elegant logic) to comprehend experience, and considers Imagination the chief of human faculties. It must therefore be by the exercise of that faculty that one moves toward faith, and possibly by its failure that one rejects it as delusion. Poems present their testimony as circumstantial evidences, not as closing argument. Where Wallace Stevens says, 'God and the imagination are one,' I would say that the imagination, which synergizes intellect, emotion and instinct, is the perceptive organ through which it is possible, though not inevitable, to experience God.

Denise Levertov#3

PoetryFaithImaginationReason

About this quote

What does it mean?
Poetry relies on imagination to grasp life because logic alone is insufficient.
In plain terms
You need imagination to understand life, not just logic.
What can you take from it?
Use imagination to find truth when reason fails.

Where it applies

  • writing
  • problem solving
  • art appreciation

Putting it to work

  • write openly
  • trust intuition

Questions to consider

  • Does logic limit your understanding?
  • How does your imagination work?

Another view

It underestimates the role of logic in understanding.

More from Denise Levertov

  1. Praise the invisible sun burning beyond the white cold sky, giving us light and the chimney's shadow.

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  2. I like to find what's not found at once, but lies within something of another nature, in repose, distinct.

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  3. To leave the open fields and enter the forest, that was the rite. Knowing there was mystery, they could go. Go back now! And he receded among the multitude of …

    Permalink to quote #1

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