Ars Poetica - Archibald MacLeish

Archibald MacLeish

The best known poem by Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982), published in 1926, took its title and subject from Horace's work. His poem "Ars Poetica" contains the line "A poem should not mean/but be", which was a classic statement of the modernist aesthetic. The original manuscript of the poem is in the collections of the Library of Congress.

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Famous quotes by archibald macleish:

    Conventional wisdom notwithstanding, there is no reason either in football or in poetry why the two should not meet in a man’s life if he has the weight and cares about the words.
    Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982)

    America is promises to
    Take!
    America is promises to
    Us
    To take them
    Brutally
    With love but
    Take them.
    Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982)

    The roots of the grass strain,
    Tighten, the earth is rigid, waits—he is waiting—

    And suddenly, and all at once, the rain!
    Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982)

    Nor now the long light on the sea—
    And here face downward in the sun
    To feel how swift how secretly
    The shadow of the night comes on . . .
    Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982)

    There with vast wings across the canceled skies,
    There in the sudden blackness the black pall
    Of nothing, nothing, nothing—nothing at all.
    Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982)