Charles Simic: Poets are, basically, employees of the dictionary. They work for the dictionary.
Jeffrey Brown: You work for the dictionary?
Simic: Yes, we work for the dictionary.
Brown: What do you mean?
Simic: We keep the language, I think, honest and interesting. We look up words all the time, we open them up. We put some words to use that haven't been used in a long time.
-from an interview as part of NewsHour's Poetry Series
4 comments:
Simic is hitting the nail on the head, or would that be the word. I love that he says: honest and interesting.
employees? a poet is more like a dictionary's conscience, constantly reminding it of the futility of its endeavor--trying to encapsulate and demarcate language between two hard covers. this is a little more purple then i intended.
I think I like that definition more than Simic's, Anonymous.
If only I knew your name so I could properly credit you for it :).
looking at different angles and different shades of purple, yes, the poet defies the dictionary, and the poet defines anew.
and just like a metaphor violates the rules of language, and with that opens space for meaning to be made, the poet violates the definitions. is this tending toward green?
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