Beloved, till life can charm no more; And mourned, till Pity's self be dead.
William CollinsRead
By fairy hands their knell is rung; By forms unseen their dirge is sung.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that beauty and art are often created by unseen forces or talents.
William Collins’ quote reflects on the ethereal nature of art and beauty, implying that there are often unseen inspirations or forces behind artistic expression. It highlights the notion that while art may visibly exist in our world, its origins and the emotions it conveys are often crafted by mysterious and intangible influences, much like a melody played without a visible musician or a story told without a clear author.
Themes
ArtBeautyInspirationCreationMystery
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the impact of art on society, one could use this quote to emphasize the unseen elements that shape artistic expressions.
More from William Collins
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Novel-writing can be a cold-blooded business. One uses whatever happens to be lying around in memory and employs it to suit one’s end….Then, again, during the months whilst one is writing about the past, a story is colored by what presently is happening to its writer. So, imperceptibly, the tone of voice changes, original intentions slip away. And I found myself looking through another window at a darker landscape inhabited by neither the present nor the past.
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Romantic art deals with the exception and with the individual. Good people, belonging as they do to the normal, and so, commonplace type, are artistically uninteresting.
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Some actors, I think, want to feel that they are as creative as the writer. And the answer is, frankly, they're not.
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If artists and poets are unhappy, it is after all because happiness does not interest them.
George SantayanaRead
The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it’s definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.
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For my art, there is a common theme most of the time: it is using the things we can see to search for the world we cannot see.
Cai Guo-QiangRead