A book is a physical object in a world of physical objects. It is a set of dead symbols. And then the right reader comes along, and the words—or rather the poetry behind the words, for the words themselves are mere symbols—spring to life, and we have a resurrection of the word.


This Craft of Verse (ed. Harvard University Press, 2002) - ISBN: 9780674008205


A book is a physical object in a world of physical objects. It is a set of dead symbols. And then the right reader comes along, and the words—or...

A book is a physical object in a world of physical objects. It is a set of dead symbols. And then the right reader comes along, and the words—or...

A book is a physical object in a world of physical objects. It is a set of dead symbols. And then the right reader comes along, and the words—or...

A book is a physical object in a world of physical objects. It is a set of dead symbols. And then the right reader comes along, and the words—or...