It is by all odds the loftiest of cities. It even managed to reach the highest point in the sky at the lowest moment of the depression.
E. B. WhiteRead
A poem compresses much in a small space and adds music, thus heightening its meaning. The city is like poetry: it compresses all life, all races and breeds, into a small island and adds music and the accompaniment of internal engines. The island of Manhattan is without any doubt the greatest human concentrate on earth, the poem whose magic is comprehensible to millions of permanent residents but whose full meaning will always remain elusive.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote compares a poem to the city, highlighting how both encapsulate complex experiences and emotions in a condensed form.
E. B. White's quote illustrates the idea that both poetry and the city of Manhattan serve as powerful compressions of life, capturing the essence of diverse experiences, cultures, and emotions within a confined space. Just as poetry encapsulates profound meanings through its rhythm and imagery, the city takes all its inhabitants and their histories, weaving them together into a rich, vibrant tapestry that can inspire and resonate with many, yet remains enigmatic in its entirety.
Themes
PoetryCityManhattanLifeCulture
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about urban life and creativity.
More from E. B. White
All quotes →It isn't silence you can cut with a knife any more, it's interchange of ideas. Intelligent discussion of practically everything is what is breaking up modern marriage.
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The main thing I try to do is write as clearly as I can. Because I have the greatest respect for the reader, and if he's going to the trouble of reading what I've written -- I'm a slow reader myself and I guess most people are -- why, the least I can do is make it as easy as possible for him to find out what I'm trying to say, trying to get at. I rewrite a good deal to make it clear.
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A good farmer is nothing more nor less than a handy man with a sense of humus.
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A despot doesn't fear eloquent writers preaching freedom- he fears a drunken poet who may crack a joke that will take hold.
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All writing is communication; creative writing is communication through revelation-it is the Self-escaping into the open.
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