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William Empson - Seven Types of Ambiguity (1930)

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Critics…are of two sorts: those who merely relieve themselves against the flower of beauty, and those, less continent, who afterwards scratch it up.

William Empson
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An ambiguity, in ordinary speech, means something very pronounced, and as a rule witty or deceitful.... any verbal nuance, however slight, which gives room for alternative reactions to the same piece of language.

William Empson
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Proust has listed a great many reasons why it is impossible to be happy, but, in the course of being happy, one finds it difficult to remember them.

William Empson
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The machinations of ambiguity are among the very roots of poetry.

William Empson

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William Empson

William Empson

Born: September 27, 1906
Died: April 15, 1984 (aged 77)
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