Poetry operates by hints and dark suggestions. It is full of secrets and hidden formulae, like a witch's brew.
Anthony HechtRead
A lot of the fun lies in trying to penetrate the mystery; and this is best done by saying over the lines to yourself again and again, till they pass through the stage of sounding like nonsense, and finally return to a full sense that had at first escaped notice.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The joy of understanding complex ideas comes from repeated contemplation until clarity is achieved.
This quote emphasizes the importance of persistence and active engagement when grappling with difficult concepts. Hecht suggests that rather than being discouraged by initial confusion, one should embrace the process of revisiting and reflecting on the material, allowing deeper meanings to emerge through repetition and contemplation.
Themes
UnderstandingMysteryLearningPersistenceReflection
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in an academic setting to motivate students to engage deeply with challenging texts.
More from Anthony Hecht
All quotes →Similar quotes
The child is endowed with unknown powers, which can guide us to a radiant future. If what we really want is a new world, then education must take as its aim the development of these hidden possibilities.
Maria MontessoriRead
Read the Bible, read the Bible! Let no religious book take its place. Through all my perplexities and distresses, I seldom read any other book, and I as rarely felt the want of any other.
William WilberforceRead
Hitherto I have courted Truth with a kind of Romantick Passion, in spite of all Difficulties and Discouragements: for knowledge is thought so unnecessary an Accomplishment for a Woman, that few will give themselves the Trouble to assist us in the Attainment of it.
Mary AstellRead
Once you educate the boys, they tend to leave the villages and go search for work in the cities, but the girls stay home, become leaders in the community, and pass on what they've learned. If you really want to change a culture, to empower women, improve basic hygiene and health care, and fight high rates of infant mortality, the answer is to educate girls.
Greg MortensonRead
From their earliest years children live on familiar terms with disrupting emotions, fear and anxiety are an intrinsic part of their everyday lives, they continually cope with frustrations as best they can. And it is through fantasy that children achieve catharsis. It is the best means they have for taming Wild Things.
Maurice SendakRead
Good teachers teach. Great teachers transform.
Queen Rania Of JordanRead