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Osip Mandelstam on Poetry

1891–1938 Poland

← All quotes by Osip Mandelstam

4 quotes

Only in Russia poetry is respected – it gets people killed. Is there anywhere else where poetry is so common a motive for murder?

Today a kind of speaking in tongues is taking place. In sacred frenzy poets speak the language of all times, all cultures. Nothing is impossible.

Classical poetry is the poetry of revolution

It is indeed astonishing that all are obsessed with poets and cannot tear themselves away from them. You would think that once they were read, that was that. Transcended, as they say now. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Osip Mandelstam (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.