Quote#Work
Now, in our opinion, no author should be blamed for obscurity; nor…
Quote byAlice Meynell · 1847–1922
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: "Robert Browning" (1880), in Alice Meynell, Prose and Poetry: Centenary Volume (London: Jonathan Cape, 1947), pp. 93–94. The essay first appeared in The Pen: A Journal of Literature, co-edited by Meynell and her husband..
English (original)
Now, in our opinion, no author should be blamed for obscurity; nor should any pains be grudged in the effort to understand him, provided that he has done his best to be intelligible. Difficult thoughts are quite distinct from difficult words. Difficulty of thought is the very heart of poetry.
— Alice Meynell
More from Alice Meynell
[N]o mirror keeps its glances.
O Spring, I know thee! Seek for sweet surprise In the young children's eyes. But I have learnt the years, and know the yet Leaf-folded violet.
Thou art like silence unperplexed, A secret and a mystery Between one footfall and the next.
There is nothing in the world more peaceful than apple-leaves with an early moon.
Compassion in the highest degree is the divinest form of religion.
My heart shall be thy garden. Come, my own, Into thy garden; thine be happy hours Among my fairest thoughts, my tallest flowers, From root to crowning petal thine alone.