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About this quote

What does it mean?
Poets follow their own ethical codes rather than societal norms.
In plain terms
Poets have their own rules, so tradition does not sway them.
What can you take from it?
Artists often prioritize personal integrity over convention.

Where it applies

  • analyzing literature
  • discussing art
  • critiquing society

Putting it to work

  • reading poetry
  • writing critique
  • teaching literature

Questions to consider

  • How do artists challenge societal norms?
  • Should art follow convention?

Another view

Not all poets reject social norms explicitly.

More from Thomas Hardy

  1. Good, but not religious-good.

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  2. Like the British Constitution, she owes her success in practice to her inconsistencies in principle.

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  3. To dwellers in a wood almost every species of tree has its voice as well as its feature. At the passing of the breeze the fir-trees sob and moan no less distin…

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