Two such as you with such a master speed, cannot be parted nor be swept away, from one another once you are agreed, that life is only life forevermore, together wing to wing and oar to oar.
Robert FrostRead
Keats mourned that the rainbow, which as a boy had been for him a magic thing, had lost its glory because the physicists had found it resulted merely from the refraction of the sunlight by the raindrops. Yet knowledge of its causation could not spoil the rainbow for me. I am sure that it is not given to man to be omniscient. There will always be something left to know, something to excite the imagination of the poet and those attuned to the great world in which they live (p. 64)
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the tension between scientific understanding and the enduring magic of nature.
Frost reflects on Keats's lament about the loss of innocence and wonder in the face of scientific explanation. While knowledge can demystify natural phenomena like rainbows, it does not diminish their beauty or the imagination they inspire. Frost suggests that the quest for understanding is limitless, and true appreciation of the world goes beyond mere facts, embracing mystery and creativity alongside knowledge.
Themes
RainbowKnowledgeImaginationScienceArtNature
In practice
Example use cases
A poet could use this quote to emphasize the importance of imagination in their work during a literary reading.
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God made a beauteous garden With lovely flowers strown, But one straight, narrow pathway That was not overgrown. And to this beauteous garden He brought mankind to live, And said "To you, my children, These lovely flowers I give. Prune ye my vines and fig trees, With care my flowers tend, But keep the pathway open Your home is at the end." God's Garden
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'Warm in December, cold in June, you say?' _x000D_ _x000D_ I don't suppose the water's changed at all. _x000D_ _x000D_ You and I know enough to know it's warm _x000D_ _x000D_ Compared with cold, and cold compared with warm. _x000D_ _x000D_ But all the fun's in how you say a thing.
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For, dear me, why abandon a belief, Merely because it ceases to be true, Cling to it long enough, and not a doubt, It will turn true again, for so it goes.
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The question that he frames in all but words is what to make of a diminished thing.
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