Abysmal instruments make sounds like pips Of the sweeping meanings that we add to them.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Even crude or poor tools can produce profound sounds if we attach deep meanings to them.
- In plain terms
- Bad instruments make great sounds if we add meaning to them.
- What can you take from it?
- Meaning comes from the user, not the tool.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Does a tool define its output?
- Can meaning overcome poor quality?
Another view
This relies on subjective interpretation rather than objective quality.
More from Wallace Stevens
We are the mimics. Clouds are pedagogues.
Permalink to quote #102 Yet voluble of dumb violence. You look Across the roofs as sigil and as ward And in your centre mark them and are cowed . . .
Permalink to quote #104 The clouds preceded us. There was a muddy centre before we breathed. There was a myth before the myth began, Venerable and articulate and complete. From this t…
Permalink to quote #101
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