Jean Cocteau (French poet and artist)
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Born : July 5, 1889
Died : October 11, 1963
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French poet, librettist, novelist, actor, film director, and painter.
Cocteau was the product of the years immediately preceding World War I, years of refined artistic taste that were devoid of political turmoil.
Soon after the war, Max Jacob introduced Cocteau to the future poet and novelist Raymond Radiguet. The 16-year-old Radiguet, who appeared to be a prodigy, advocated an aesthetic of simplicity and of classical clarity, qualities that would become characteristic of Cocteau’s own work. The example of Radiguet counted tremendously for Cocteau; and when Radiguet died in 1923, at age 21, the older man felt bereft of a friendship that had been based upon a constant interchange of ideas, encouragement, and enthusiasms.
_______
Born : July 5, 1889
Died : October 11, 1963
_______
French poet, librettist, novelist, actor, film director, and painter.
Cocteau was the product of the years immediately preceding World War I, years of refined artistic taste that were devoid of political turmoil.
Soon after the war, Max Jacob introduced Cocteau to the future poet and novelist Raymond Radiguet. The 16-year-old Radiguet, who appeared to be a prodigy, advocated an aesthetic of simplicity and of classical clarity, qualities that would become characteristic of Cocteau’s own work. The example of Radiguet counted tremendously for Cocteau; and when Radiguet died in 1923, at age 21, the older man felt bereft of a friendship that had been based upon a constant interchange of ideas, encouragement, and enthusiasms.
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"It's possible that what we call progress could prove to be the development of an error."
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"It is quite clear that we're living according to conventional norms like the calendar or the watch and it's likely that we have misled ourselves and perhaps you are still misleading youtselves."
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"It's posssible you find me stupid. But in the end I wish to be honest."
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"We are living in a time obsessed with actuality. People like immediacy, haste and actuality and poetry is, I repeat, timeless. This means that it doesn't correspond to what's happening. It is out-of-the-moment."
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"Of course, I wish people could keep of me the image of the mysterious other that inhabits me. I don't want to be remembered as the self speaking to you, but as the self who is in the shadows."
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"If a poet has a dream, It is not of becoming famous, but of being believed."
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“The day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying.”
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“An artist cannot speak about his art anymore than a plant can discuss horticulture.”
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“I’ve always preferred mythology to history. History is truth that becomes an illusion. Mythology is an illusion that becomes reality.”
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“When I think of all the books I have yet to read, I am sure that I am still happy.”
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“A half empty bottle of wine is also half full, but half a lie will never be half true”
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“It is excruciating to be an unbeliever with a spirit that is deeply religious… Poetry is a religion without hope.”
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Mary Oliver (American poet)
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Born : September 10, 1935
Died : January 17, 2019
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American poet whose work reflects a deep communion with the natural world.
Oliver attended the Ohio State University and Vassar College but did not earn a degree.Her volume American Primitive (1983), which won a Pulitzer Prize, glorifies the natural world, reflecting the American fascination with the ideal of the pastoral life as it was first expressed by Henry David Thoreau. In House of Light (1990) Oliver explored the rewards of solitude in nature.
Oliver also wrote about the writing of poetry in two slender but rich volumes, A Poetry Handbook (1995) and Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse (1998). Winter Hours (1999) includes poetry, prose poems, and essays on other poets. In Long Life: Essays and Other Writings (2004), Oliver explored the “connection between soul and landscape.”
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Born : September 10, 1935
Died : January 17, 2019
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American poet whose work reflects a deep communion with the natural world.
Oliver attended the Ohio State University and Vassar College but did not earn a degree.Her volume American Primitive (1983), which won a Pulitzer Prize, glorifies the natural world, reflecting the American fascination with the ideal of the pastoral life as it was first expressed by Henry David Thoreau. In House of Light (1990) Oliver explored the rewards of solitude in nature.
Oliver also wrote about the writing of poetry in two slender but rich volumes, A Poetry Handbook (1995) and Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse (1998). Winter Hours (1999) includes poetry, prose poems, and essays on other poets. In Long Life: Essays and Other Writings (2004), Oliver explored the “connection between soul and landscape.”
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