on Language and Thoughtfulness
One of the great practical uses of the literary disciplines, of course, is to resist glibness–to slow language down and make it thoughtful. This accounts, particularly, for the influence of verse, in its formal aspect, within the dynamics of the growth of language: verse checks the merely impulsive flow of speech, subjects it to another pulse, to measure, to extralinguistic consideration; by inducing the hesitations of difficulty, it admits into language the influence of the Muse and of musing.
Wendell Berry
Entry Filed under: Berry, Wendell • Essays • Snippets • Writers on Writing
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