It is a
truth universally acknowledged
That all
that is gold does not glitter,
Not all
those who wander are lost,
That brevity
is the soul of wit.
It was the
best of times…
The boy who
lived,
The odds
ever in your favor.
What are men
compared to
Rocks and
mountains?
That is the
question.
It was the
worst of times.
I solemnly
swear that I am
Up to no
good,
To dwell on
dreams and
Forget to
live.
There is a
monster at the
End of this book.
Real or not
real?
We are all
in the gutter,
Seen hell
and it’s white,
It’s snow
white.
But some of
us are looking at
The stars.
To live will
be an
Awfully big
adventure.
I don’t play
accurately—
Anyone can
play accurately—
But I play
with wonderful expression.
Oh, the
cleverness of me!
Artist's Statement
Let me first
explain my project—I’ve taken well-known lines from classic and popular
literature and reworked them into a stand-alone poem. Every word is taken
directly from another book, even the conjunctions and articles. The medium I’m expressing is poetry with a
focus on phrasing and words. I began by gathering some of my favorite lines
from Shakespeare, Harry Potter, Peter Pan,
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the
Ring, The Hunger Games, Pride and Prejudice, A Tale of Two Cities, North and South,
Oscar Wilde, and one of my favorite children’s books, “The Monster at the End
of this Book.” My aim was to keep the quotations as intact and recognizable as
possible to emphasize that even though individual letter, words, and phrases can
be common and unexceptional, profound and unique meaning can still be expressed
by simply arranging them in a certain order.
Literature and
the written word in general is extremely unique because there are only 26
letters available to artists. Every possible (correct) word in the English language
has already been invented and has already written down, used, and understood.
Even certain phrases, such as these famous quotes, have been rendered unusable
due to their ubiquity. But my project highlights poetry’s power of creating new
meaning and emotion through the juxtaposition of certain words and, in this
case, certain phrases. Even though in their own context these quotes already have
individual meaning assigned to them by author, reader, and popular culture, by
placing them in a new order in a new context they are able to generate fresh
meaning and insights.
The Scott
McCloud reading had multiple similarities to what I was trying to achieve with
my poem. McCloud states, “In time, most modern writing would come to represent
sound only and lose any lingering resemblance to the visible world.” In many
ways, this is how I felt about popular, border-line-cliché lines from famous
literature, both old and new. Though these quotes and the contextual meaning
they have in their own works and in popular culture are greatly admired, their
ability to create new meaning has been limited—they are just sound with no new
color. But through poetry and juxtaposition, these quotes are able to create new
images, emotions, and meaning in addition to the history of meaning they bring
with them.
The main
outside inspiration for this poem was T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. Though he does use some of his own wording, large
portions of his poem are direct or corrupted quotations and allusions. He mainly
draws upon the hallmarks of literature, but also includes children’s rhymes and
other low-brow literature. Eliot’s aim was to trivialize their worth by
irreverently juxtaposing respected works of literature with children’s songs.
Though I in no way aim to trivialize the quotes I use, I did try and emulate
Eliot’s ability to generate a new perspective in his readers through
juxtaposition.
