George Edward Woodberry
George Edward Woodberry
George Edward Woodberry, Litt. D., LL. D.was an American literary critic and poet...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCritic
CountryUnited States of America
action attempt casual civilization control great introduce men principle swayed
The great effort of civilization has been, and still is, the attempt to introduce a principle of control into that casual swarm of impressions which makes up men's thought and of which, especially with swayed by emotion, spontaneous action is the law.
appear man material nature obtaining open order permanent universal
It does not appear to me to be open to question that there is in the soul of man a nature and an order obtaining in it as permanent and universal as in the material world.
barbarous crumbling dying enrich great hill inherit itself lower race rubbish soil spending stored treasure
Always, some great culture is dying to enrich the soil of new harvests, some civlization is crumbling to rubbish to be the hill of a more beautiful city, some race is spending itself that a lower and more barbarous world may inherit its stored treasure house.
altar blood dance days frame god leader less life men name passion phrase poet poetic rude victor
From the beginning, about the rude altar of the god, to the days of Goethe, of Leopardi, and of Victor Hugo, the poet is the leader in the dance of life; and the phrase by which we name his singularity, the poetic temperament, denotes the primacy of that passion in his blood with which the frame of other men is less richly charged.
stars men thinking
What faith in man must in our new world beat, Thinking how once he saw before his face The west and all the host of stars retreat Into the silent infinite of space!
ideas promise enough
You must find the ideas that have some promise in them... It is not enough to just have ideas.
faith risk willingness
The willingness to take risks is our grasp of faith.
art powerful mean
Art is expression; what is expressed is often the vision of a subtle and powerful soul, and also his experience with his vision; and however vivid and skilful he may be in the means of expression, yet it is frequently found that the master-spell in his work is something felt to be indefinable and inexpressible.
voice imagination desire
Much of a poet's experience takes place in imagination only; the life he tells is oftenest the life that he strongly desires to live, and the power, the purity and height of his utterance may not seldom be the greater because experience here uses the voices of desire.
fall tree ancient
Seasonal changes, as it were, take place in history, when there is practically an almost universal death, a falling of the foliage of the tree of life. Such were the intervals between the ancient and mediaeval time, the mediaeval and the modern.
independent expression genius
A marvellous power of expression over language often distinguishes genius; but Shakespeare in his phrases seems independent of the bonds of language as of the bonds of metre.
speech free-speech form
Aesthetic freedom is like free speech; it is, indeed, a form of free speech.
symbolism hidden-meaning deals
I seldom deal in symbolisms; if there be hidden meanings in my verse, they are there without my knowledge.
life art voice
Is there not an art, a music, and a stream of words that shalt be life, the acknowledged voice of life?