Words are always getting conventionalized to some secondary meaning. It is one of the works of poetry to take the truants in custody and bring them back to their right senses.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Yeats claims words lose original meaning over time and that poetry restores them to their proper senses.
- In plain terms
- Words get clichéd so poetry brings them back to their true meaning.
- What can you take from it?
- Poetry refreshes language that has become dull.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Which words feel clichéd to you?
- How can you refresh language?
Another view
Some conventionalization aids communication efficiency.
More from William Butler Yeats
I hate journalists. There is nothing in them but tittering jeering emptiness. They have all made what Dante calls the Great Refusal, - that is they have ceased…
Permalink to quote #4 The years like great black oxen tread the world, And God the herdsman goads them on behind, And I am broken by their passing feet.
Permalink to quote #6 I wonder anybody does anything at Oxford but dream and remember, the place is so beautiful. One almost expects the people to sing instead of speaking. It is al…
Permalink to quote #3
Related quotes
Words want to find chimes with each other, things want to connect.
Paul MuldoonPaul Muldoon quote #1 Poetry: 'Poetry can bridge that gap between what is solid and what is suggested; poetry can pull cogent meaning from the vaporous illusions of the esoteric.'
Bryant McGillBryant McGill quote #6 Words ... are little houses, each with its cellar and garret. Common sense lives on the ground floor, always ready to engage in 'foreign commerce' on the same …
Gaston BachelardGaston Bachelard quote #7