Tuesday, November 06, 2018

Poets

In the normal course of things, a poet, however illustrious, is but an ornament of his country.  He is a sumptuary creature, a luxury whose existence merely signifies the determination of some few people to express, in language quite distinct from the vernacular, what is purest in the domain of least useful thought.
- Paul Valéry, “In Honor of Émile Verhaeren” (1927)

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