It's a feature of our age that if you write a work of fiction, everyone assumes that the people and events in it are disguised biography - but if you write your biography, it's equally assumed you're lying your head off. This last may be true, at any rate of poets: Plato said that poets should be excluded from the ideal republic because they are such liars. I am a poet, and I affirm that this is true. About no subject are poets tempted to lie so much as about their own lives; I know one of them who has floated at least five versions of his autobiography, none of them true. I of course - being also a novelist - am a much more truthful person than that. But since poets lie, how can you believe me?
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- People distrust both fictional and autobiographical writing, assuming lies, especially from poets.
- In plain terms
- Readers suspect poets of lying about any subject, even their own lives.
- What can you take from it?
- Understand that audience skepticism can shape how you present personal work.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How does genre affect credibility?
- Can a poet be both truthful and artistic?
Another view
Not all readers share this bias; some value poetic truth over factual accuracy.
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