The title of hero is bestowed by the survivors upon the fallen, who themselves know nothing of heroism.
Johan HuizingaRead
If a serious statement is defined as one that may be made in terms of waking life, poetry will never rise to the level of seriousness. It lies beyond seriousness, on that more primitive and original level where the child, the animal, the savage, and the seer belong, in the region of dream, enchantment, ecstasy, laughter. To understand poetry we must be capable of donning the child's soul like a magic cloak and of forsaking man's wisdom for the child's.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Poetry transcends the seriousness of waking life and connects us to a more primitive, joyful essence.
This quote suggests that poetry exists in a realm beyond conventional seriousness. It evokes the idea that to truly appreciate poetry, one must embrace a childlike perspective, allowing oneself to experience emotions like enchantment and ecstasy that are often lost in adult rationality. Huizinga emphasizes the importance of intuition and imagination, illustrating how poetry resonates with the deeper, dreamlike aspects of human experience.
Themes
PoetryArtImaginationChildlikeSeriousness
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about creativity, one might say, 'As Johan Huizinga noted, to truly appreciate poetry, one must embrace a childlike imagination.'
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The susceptibility of the average modern to pictorial suggestion enables advertising to exploit his lessened power of judgment.
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