QuoteProject
The object of poetic activity is essentially language: whatever his beliefs and convictions, the poet is more concerned with words than with what these words designate.
Octavio Paz
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote emphasizes the importance of language in poetry, focusing on the words themselves rather than their meanings.

Octavio Paz suggests that the essence of poetry lies in the exploration and manipulation of language. He indicates that poets are more preoccupied with the form, sound, and rhythm of words than with the literal meanings they convey, reflecting a deeper appreciation for the artistry of language itself.

Themes

PoetryLanguageWordsArtistryExpression

In practice

Example use cases

A speaker at a literary festival discussing the role of language in literature.

More from Octavio Paz

Solitude lies at the lowest depth of the human condition. Man is the only being who feels himself to be alone and the only one who is searching for the Other.
Octavio PazRead
By suppressing differences and peculiarities, by eliminating different civilizations and cultures, progress weakens life and favors death
Octavio PazRead
The North American system only wants to consider the positive aspects of reality. Men and women are subjected from childhood to an inexorable process of adaptation certain principles, contained in brief formulas are endlessly repeated by the Press, the radio, the churches, and the schools, and by those kindly, sinister beings, the North American mothers and wives. A person imprisoned by these schemes is like a plant in a flowerpot too small for it he cannot grow or mature.
Octavio PazRead
Poetry is not a genre in harmony with the modern world; its innermost nature is hostile or indifferent to the dogmas of modern times, progress and the cult of the future.
Octavio PazRead
If we are a metaphor of the universe, the human couple is the metaphor par excellence, the point of intersection of all forces and the seed of all forms. The couple is time recaptured, the return to the time before time.
Octavio PazRead
Man, even man debased by the neocapitalism and pseudosocialism of our time, is a marvelous being because he sometimes speaks. Language is the mark, the sign, not of his fall but of his original innocence. Through the Word we may regain the lost kingdom and recover powers we possessed in the far-distant past.
Octavio PazRead

Similar quotes

I think the rhythm is like the spine of the piece. If you change that, then the body that forms around it is changed as well.
Peter GabrielRead
A film is a terrible thing to waste.
Roger EbertRead
To say that "the camera cannot lie" is merely to underline the multiple deceits that are now practised in its name.
Marshall McluhanRead
Chekhov directors and Chekhov actors love working on his plays because there seems to be no end to what you can find out about the micro-narrative when you're investigating a text.
Tom StoppardRead
I just wanted a song to sing, and there came a point where I couldn't sing anything...nobo dy else was writing what I wanted to sing. I couldn't find it anywhere. If I could I probably would never have started writing.
Bob DylanRead
It is enough for a poet to be the guilty conscience of his age.
Saint-John PerseRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.