The poetical language of an age should be the current language heightened, to any degree heightened and unlike itself, but not...an obsolete one.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Poetry should use elevated current language, not outdated words.
- In plain terms
- Use modern speech for poetry, not old words.
- What can you take from it?
- Keep language current in art.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What makes language current?
- When is old language useful?
Another view
Old language can have lasting value.
More from Gerard Manley Hopkins
No doubt my poetry errs on the side of oddness. I hope in time to have a more balanced and Miltonic style. But as air, melody, is what strikes me most of all i…
Permalink to quote #8 Our Lord Jesus Christ, my brethren, is our hero, a hero all the world wants.
Permalink to quote #10 All the world is full of inscape and chance left free to act falls into an order as well as purpose.
Permalink to quote #7
Related quotes
I rhyme To see myself, to set the darkness echoing.
Seamus HeaneySeamus Heaney quote #1 The music that of common speech but slanted so that each detail sounds unexpected as a sharp inserted in a simple scale.
Dana GioiaDana Gioia quote #3 L'oeuvre pure implique la disparition elocutoire du poete, qui cede l'initiative aux mots.
Stephane MallarmeStephane Mallarme quote #6