Quotation by

T. S. Eliot

The business of the poet is not to find new emotions, but to use the ordinary ones and, in working them up into poetry, to express feelings which are not in actual emotions at all.

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Understanding this quote AI Analysis

In simple terms, this quote by T. S. Eliot in the context of poetry is expressing a point of view or lesson. It highlights what the speaker considers important and why.

The wording is partly framed in the negative (what to avoid or reject), which often signals a boundary: what the speaker refuses to accept and what they stand for instead.

A useful way to apply it is to ask: “What situation in my life does this relate to right now, and what would change if I took it seriously?”

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A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.