| The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996. |
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| NUMBER: | 25816 |
| QUOTATION: | The difference between prose logic and poetic thought is simple. The logician uses words as a builder uses bricks, for the unemotional deadness of his academic prose; and is always coining newer, deader words with a natural preference for Greek formations. The poet avoids the entire vocabulary of logic unless for satiric purposes, and treats words as living creatures with a preference for those with long emotional histories dating from mediaeval times. Poetry at its purest is, indeed, a defiance of logic. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Robert Graves (1895–1985), British novelist, poet. “Genius,” Difficult Questions, Easy Answers, Doubleday (1972). |
| BIOGRAPHY: | Columbia Encyclopedia. |
| WORKS: | Graves Collection. |
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| | | The Columbia World of Quotations. Copyright © 1996 Columbia University Press. |
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