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It is not the word that is the original material of poetry, rather the letter.

— Kurt Schwitters

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Notes from Wikiquote

1. Composition of letters | 2. Sounds | 3. Description (meaning) | 4. Vehicle for idea associations | Art is uninterpretable, unending; material must be unequivocal in a consistent formation. | In: 'Consistent Poetry Art', Schwitters' contribution to 'Magazine G', No. 3, 1924, ed. Hans Richter.

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Poetry

More quotes by Kurt Schwitters

We, the founders of Dada-movement try to give time its own reflection in the mirror.

I have two principle aims, two life works. The second is my sonata [Schwitters' 'UrSonata' - a long sound poem of 35 minutes]

I is Style (2000)

Since the loss of the Merzbau [his former studio in Hannover, which was a big sculpture (5 x 4 x 4,5 meters) I did a lot of small sculptures..

I is Style (2000)

Kurt Schwitters is the inventor of Merz and I, and aside of himself, he recognizes no one as a Merz artist or an I artist with highest regards.

Merz stands for the freedom of all fetters.. .Merz also means tolerance towards any artistically motivated limitation. Every artist must be allowed to mould a picture out of nothing but blotting paper, for example, provided he is capable of moulding a picture.

Merz. Für den Ararat geschrieben (1920)

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There is a property in the horizon which no man has but he whose eye can integrate all the parts, that is, the poet.

Ralph Waldo Emerson Nature (1836)

Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality.

T. S. Eliot Tradition and the Individual Talent (1919)

Poetry, unlike oratory, should not aim at clarity...but be dense with meaning, 'something to be chewed and digested'.

George Chapman Ovid's Banquet of Sense (1595)

I am no poet, but if you think for yourselves, as I proceed, the facts will form a poem in your minds.

Michael Faraday

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Kurt Schwitters (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.