Herbert Read - Collected Quotes

"A poem therefore is to be defined as a structure of words whose sound constitutes a rhythmical unity, complete in itself, irrefragable, unanalyzable, completing its symbolic references within the ambit of its sound effects." (Herbert Read, "What is a Poem", 1926)

"The words in a poem, (or more exactly, syllables) are vocal signs that convey an intangible essence (the pattern of feeling) that vanishes the moment we approach it with an analytical intelligence." (Herbert Read, "What is a Poem", 1926)

"There is no beauty in anything rational. Beauty emerges from the unknown, often from the inane, generally irrational, as unforseen combinations." (Herbert Read, "Phases in English Poetry", 1928)

"All art originates in an act of intuition or vision." (Herbert Read, "Form in Modern Poetry", 1948)

"Poetry is properly speaking a transcendental quality, a sudden transformation in which words assume a particular influence." (Herbert Read, "Form in Modern Poetry", 1948)

"The difference between poetry and prose is not one of surface qualities, or form, or mode of expression, but of essence. The state of mind in which poetry originates must either seek poetic expression or it must not be expressed." (Herbert Read, "Form in Modern Poetry", 1948)

"Words, their sound and even their very appearance, are, of course, everything to he poet." (Herbert Read, "Form in Modern Poetry", 1948)

"Beauty had been born, not, as we so often conceive it nowadays, as an ideal of humanity, but as measure, as the reduction of the chaos of appearances to the precision of linear symbols. Symmetry, balance, harmonic division, mated and mensurated intervals – such were its abstract characteristics." (Herbert Read, "Icon and Idea: The Function of Art in the Development of Human Consciousness", 1955)

"Intellect begins with the observation of nature, proceeds to memorize and classify the facts thus observed, and by logical deduction builds up that edifice of knowledge properly called science. But admittedly we also know by feeling, and we can combine the two faculties, and present knowledge in the guise of art." (Herbert Read, "Selected Writings: Poetry and Criticism", 1963)

"Progress is measured by richness and intensity of experience - by a wider and deeper apprehension of the significance and scope of human existence." (Herbert Read, "Selected writings: poetry and criticism", 1963)

"The most general law in nature is equity - the principle of balance and symmetry which guides the growth of forms along the lines of the greatest structural efficiency." (Herbert Read, "Selected Writings: Poetry and Criticism", 1963)

"The work of art [...] is an instrument for tilling the human psyche, that it may continue to yield a harvest of vital beauty." (Herbert Read, "Collected Poems", 1966)