For poems are like rainbows: they escape you quickly.

Langston Hughes

Read I've Known Rivers at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Poetry Rainbows The ephemeral

Author

Langston Hughes

Source

The Big Sea

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1940 1940s 20th century

Occupation

Black writer Black poet Poet Writer

From

United States

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Hughes, Langston. "I've Known Rivers." The Big Sea. Alfred A. Knopf, 1940.

Illustrated Quote

A quote by Langston Hughes about poetry: “For poems are like rainbows: they escape you quickly.”
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A quote by Langston Hughes about poetry: “For poems are like rainbows: they escape you quickly.”
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A quote by Langston Hughes about poetry: “For poems are like rainbows: they escape you quickly.”
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Related Quotes

Below are one or more quotes that share at least one tag with the quote at the top of the page

Another quote from the 1940s

Hope raises no dust.

Paul Eluard

More information about this quote
Topic
Hope

Author

Paul Eluard
Medium
Poem
Language
French
Time
1946 1940s 20th century
Authentication Score 1
Citation

Eluard, Paul. "Ailleurs, Ici Partout." Poesie ininterrompue. Paris: Gallimard, 1946.

Another quote about Poetry

To name an object is to take away three-fourths of the pleasure given by a poem. This pleasure consists in guessing little by little to suggest it, that is the ideal.

Jules Huret

More information about this quote
Topic
Names Poetry
Speaker
Stephane Mallarme [Etienne Mallarme]

Author

Jules Huret
Language
French
Time
1891 1890s 19th century
Authentication Score 1
Citation

Mallarme, Stephane. Quoted in "Sur l'Evolution Litteraire [On Literary Evolution]." Enquete de Huret [Investigation by Jules Huret]. Bibliotheque-Charpentier, 1891.

Another quote from 1940

We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native languages. The categories and types that we isolate from the world of phenomena we do not find there because they stare every observer in the face; on the contrary, the world is presented in a kaleidoscopic flux of impressions which has to be organized by our minds-and this means largely by the linguistic systems in our minds. We cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and ascribe significances as we do, largely because we are parties to an agreement that holds throughout our speech community and is codified in the patterns of our language.

Benjamin Lee Whorf

Science and Linguistics

More information about this quote
Topic
Language and thought Language

Author

Benjamin Lee Whorf
Source
Science and Linguistics MIT Technology Review
Medium
Essay Magazine
Genre
Scientific literature
Language
English
Time
1940 1940s 20th century
Authentication Score 3
Citation

Whorf, Benjamin Lee. "Science and Linguistics." MIT Technology Review, Apr. 1940.

Another quote of the following type Metaphor, analogy and simile

Time, the devourer of all things.

Ovid

Buy Metamorphoses at Amazon Buy Metamorphoses at Amazon
More information about this quote
Topic
Effects of time Relentlessness of time Time

Author

Ovid
Source
Metamorphoses
Medium
Poem
Statement Type
Metaphor, analogy and simile
Language
Latin
Time
8 0s 1st century
Era
Classical antiquity
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Ovid. Metamorphōsēs [Metamorphoses]. c. 8 CE, bk. 15, l. 234.

Current Citation

Ovid. Metamorphoses, translated by David Raeburn. Penguin Classics, 2004, bk. 15, l. 234.