You shall create beauty not to excite the senses but to give sustenance to the soul.
Gabriela MistralRead
I write poetry because I can’t disobey the impulse; it would be like blocking a spring that surges up in my throat. For a long time I’ve been the servant of the song that comes, that appears and can’t be buried away. How to seal myself up now?…It no longer matters to me who receives what I submit. What I carry out is, in that respect, greater and deeper than I, I am merely the channel.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses the necessity of creating poetry as an uncontrollable impulse and emphasizes the role of the poet as a channel for deeper emotions.
In this quote, Gabriela Mistral reflects on the intrinsic drive to write poetry, describing it as a powerful and inevitable force that must be expressed. She conveys the idea that the act of creation transcends her own identity, revealing that the essence of the poetry she writes is more profound than her own self, as she sees herself merely as a vessel through which the song of emotion flows.
Themes
PoetryCreationExpressionEmotionChannel
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of art, I would say, 'As Gabriela Mistral beautifully stated, I write poetry because I can’t disobey the impulse.'
More from Gabriela Mistral
All quotes →Now my belly is as noble as my heart.
Gabriela MistralRead
Many things can wait. Children cannot. Today their bones are being formed, their blood is being made, their senses are being developed. To them we cannot say "tomorrow." Their name is today.
Gabriela MistralRead
Many things we need can wait. The child cannot. Now is the time his bones are formed, his mind developed. To him we cannot say tomorrow, his name is today.
Gabriela MistralRead
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Writing is finally about one thing: going into a room alone and doing it, putting words on paper that have never been there in quite that way before.
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