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About this quote

What does it mean?
Both writer and reader remain emotionally detached, producing no tears.
In plain terms
No one feels sadness while creating or reading this work.
What can you take from it?
Some art aims for intellectual rather than emotional response.

Where it applies

  • critical analysis
  • studying technical prose

Putting it to work

  • focus on form over feeling
  • maintain objective tone

Questions to consider

  • When is emotional distance appropriate in art?
  • Can a work be powerful without tears?

Another view

It may undervalue the power of emotional resonance in literature.

More from Robert Frost

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  2. Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting...Read it a hundred times; it will forever keep its freshness as a metal keeps its fra…

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  3. The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.

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