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About this quote

What does it mean?
Good prose is only possible when it is written in close dialogue with poetry.
In plain terms
Great prose needs poetry's influence.
What can you take from it?
Blend poetic sensibility into your prose.

Where it applies

  • crafting a novel
  • writing an essay

Putting it to work

  • read poetry before drafting prose
  • incorporate rhythmic language

Questions to consider

  • When does poetry enhance prose, and when does it distract?
  • How can you balance poetic flair with clear communication?

Another view

Not all prose benefits from poetic elements; clarity may suffer.

More from Friedrich Nietzsche

  1. Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings - always darker, emptier, simpler.

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  2. Art furnishes us with eyes and hands and above all the good conscience to be able to turn ourselves into such a phenomenon.

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  3. Without art we would be nothing but foreground and live entirely in the spell of that perspective which makes what is closest at hand and most vulgar appear as…

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