I can't imagine ever writing anything of any kind on a machine. I never tried to write either poetry or prose on a typewriter. I like to do it on useless paper, scrap paper, because it's of no importance.
W. S. MerwinRead
My words are the garment of what I shall never be Like the tucked sleeve of a one-armed boy.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that words can only express a fraction of one's true self and potential, much like a garment that cannot fully cover.
W. S. Merwin's quote reflects the limitations of language in expressing the entirety of human experience and identity. He compares his words to a garment that cannot encompass who he isβlike a one-armed boy whose sleeve cannot adequately cover his arm. This highlights the intrinsic gaps between our inner selves and how we communicate our thoughts and feelings to the world.
Themes
WordsIdentityExpressionLimitationsCommunication
In practice
Example use cases
In a poetry reading to illustrate the power of words.
More from W. S. Merwin
All quotes βI think there's a kind of desperate hope built into poetry that one really wants, hopelessly, to save the world. One is trying to say everything that can be said for the things that one loves while there's still time.
W. S. MerwinRead
The kind of writing that matters most to me is something you don't learn about. It's constantly coming out of what I don't know rather than what I do know.
W. S. MerwinRead
I say to my breath once again, little breath come from in front of me, go away behind me, row me quietly now, as far as you can, for I am an abyss that I am trying to cross.
W. S. MerwinRead
Through all of youth I was looking for you_x000D_ without knowing what I was looking for_x000D_ part memory part distance remaining _x000D_ mine in the ways that I learn to miss you_x000D_ from what we cannot hold the stars are made.
W. S. MerwinRead
What I really believe is the only hopeful relation between our life and the whole of life is one of reverence and respect and of feeling at one with it. The other attitude which is the one our society is based on is devastating and it is killing the earth and it is killing us too.
W. S. MerwinRead
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Oh Senor" said the niece. "Your grace should send them to be burned (books), just like all the rest, because it's very likely that my dear uncle, having been cured of the chivalric disease, will read these and want to become a shepherd and wander through the woods and meadows singing and playing and, what would be even worse, become a poet, and that, they say, is an incurable and contagious disease.
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