To imitate nature involves the verb to do. To copy is merel… - William Carlos Williams

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To imitate nature involves the verb to do. To copy is merely to reflect something already there, inertly: Shakespeare's mirror is all that is needed for it. But by imitation we enlarge nature itself, we become nature or we discover in ourselves nature's active part.

William Carlos Williams

The Autobiography of William Carlos Williams · 1967 Verified in 1 source Sign up to see the complete provenance

nature art shakespeare mirror imitation

English

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About William Carlos Williams

William Carlos Williams (17 September 1883 – 4 March 1963) was an American poet and physician.

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Originators like William Carlos Williams:

Wallace Stevens T. S. Eliot W. H. Auden Czesław Miłosz Robert Frost

Additional quotes by William Carlos Williams

As birds' wings beat the solid air without which none could fly so words freed by the imagination affirm reality by their flight.

Poets are being pursued by the philosophers today, out of the poverty of philosophy. God damn it, you might think a man had no business to be writing, to be a poet unless some philosophic stinker gave him permission.

That which is possible is inevitable.

To imitate nature involves the verb to do. To copy is merely to reflect something already there, inertly: Shakespeare's mirror is all that is needed … - William Carlos Williams

About William Carlos Williams

Additional quotes by William Carlos Williams