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
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.
men civilization understanding
Our understanding of Shakespeare already depends largely on the vitality of Renaissance elements in our education. Each man must live in his own generation, as the saying is; but the generations are bound together by the golden links of the great tradition of civilization.
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.
children years europe
Shakespeare is, essentially, the emanation of the Renaissance. The overflow of his fame on the Continent in later years was but the sequel of the flood of the Renaissance in Western Europe. He was the child of that great movement, and marks its height as it penetrated the North with civilization.
real deeds titles
A nation's poets are its true owners; and by the stroke of the pen they convey the title-deeds of its real possessions to strangers and aliens.
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?
artist way arriving
It is not meant that the artist, in arriving at truth, must follow the way of the scientist, or, in stating it, the way of the philosopher.
eulogy fame mortals
Shakespeare has been praised in English more than anything mortal except poetry itself. Fame exhausts thought in his eulogy.
fire creative emotion
The poet craves emotion, and feeds the fire that consumes him, and only under this condition is he baptized with creative power.
morning boss next
Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse. Murphy's First Corollary If you tell the boss you were late for work because you had a flat tire, the next morning you will have a flat tire.
military fighting agriculture
The world is a multiplicity, a harvest-field, a battle-ground; and thence arises through human contact ways of numbering, or mathematics, ways of tillage, or agriculture, ways of fighting, or military tactics and strategy, and these are incorporated in individuals as habits of life.