--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Yet nothing can be more certain than…" description: "\"“Yet nothing can be more certain than this: what makes a poet a poet is the fact that he sees himself surrounded by figures who live and act before him..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4cf/friedrich-nietzsche-15_poetry_yet-nothing-can-be-more-certain-than-thi_780223.jpg" --- # Yet nothing can be more certain than this: what makes a… ![“Yet nothing can be more certain than this: what makes a poet a poet is the fact that he sees himself surrounded by figures who live and act before him, and into whose innermost essence he gazes. Because of the peculiar weakness of modern talent we are inclined to imagine the original aesthetic…” quote by Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4cf/friedrich-nietzsche-15_poetry_yet-nothing-can-be-more-certain-than-thi_780223.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4cf/friedrich-nietzsche-15_poetry_yet-nothing-can-be-more-certain-than-thi_780223.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4cf/friedrich-nietzsche-15_poetry_yet-nothing-can-be-more-certain-than-thi_780223.jpg) > ““Yet nothing can be more certain than this: what makes a poet a poet is the fact that he sees himself surrounded by figures who live and act before him, and into whose innermost essence he gazes. Because of the peculiar weakness of modern talent we are inclined to imagine the original aesthetic phenomenon in too complicated and abstract a manner. For the genuine poet metaphor is no rhetorical figure, but an image which takes the place of something else, something he can really see before him as a substitute for a concept. To the poet a character is not a whole composed of selected single features, but an insistently alive person whom he sees before his very eyes, and distinguished from a painter's vision of the same thing only by the fact that poet sees the figure continuing to live and act over a period of time. What allows Homer to depict things so much more vividly than all other poets? It is the fact that he looks at things so much more than they do. We talk so abstractly about poetry because we are usually all bad poets. Fundamentally the aesthetic phenomenon is simple; one only has to have the ability to watch a living play continuously and to live constantly surrounded by crowds of spirits, then one is a poet; if one feels the impulse to transform oneself and to speak out of other bodies and souls, then one is a dramatist”” [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Poetry arises from seeing living characters and their ongoing actions, not from abstract ideas; true poets observe life continuously and embody others' spirits. **In simple terms:** Poetry is seeing life and others' spirits. Key Takeaway Observe life deeply, embody others. Themes creativity observation identity artistic expression Mood reflective inspirational introspective Type philosophical literary inspirational When to use this quote - writing poetry - acting - teaching literature - creative workshops - psychological counseling Key Concepts phenomenology embodiment imitation living metaphor Questions to Reflect On - How do you notice living details in everyday moments? - Can you embody another's perspective without losing yourself? A Different Perspective Poets may struggle to balance personal voice with others' perspectives. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Poetry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/) ## Related quotes > [Love makes you a singer love makes you a poet love makes you a fighter love makes you a forgiver love makes you a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ritu-ghatourey/love-makes-you-a-singer-love-makes-you-a-poet-love-makes-you-a/) [Ritu Ghatourey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ritu-ghatourey/) > [There is this tendency to think that if you could only find the magic way, then you could become a poet. "Tell me how…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erica-jong/there-is-this-tendency-to-think-that-if-you-could-only-find-the-magic/) [Erica Jong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erica-jong/) > [One Power alone makes a Poet: Imagination. The Divine Vision.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-blake/one-power-alone-makes-a-poet-imagination-the-divine-vision/) [William Blake](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-blake/) > [To live within limits. To want one thing. Or a few things very much and love them dearly. Cling to them, survey them from…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/to-live-within-limits-to-want-one-thing-or-a-few-things-very-much-and/) [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/) > [“To live within limits. To want one thing. Or a few things very much and love them dearly.Cling to them, survey them from every…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-christopher-smith/to-live-within-limits-to-want-one-thing-or-a-few-things-very-much-and-2/) [C. Christopher Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-christopher-smith/) > [It's a man's sincerity and depth of vision that makes him a poet.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-carlyle/it-s-a-man-s-sincerity-and-depth-of-vision-that-makes-him-a-poet/) [Thomas Carlyle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-carlyle/) > [The eye of the poet sees less clearly, but sees farther than the eye of the scientist.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-kreeft/the-eye-of-the-poet-sees-less-clearly-but-sees-farther-than-the-eye/) [Peter Kreeft](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-kreeft/) > [Campion is a poet who knows that what a poet sees is nothing without a mixture of formal prowess and emotional insight.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-biespiel/campion-is-a-poet-who-knows-that-what-a-poet-sees-is-nothing-without/) [David Biespiel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-biespiel/) > [“Vivian Bloodmark, a philosophical friend of mine, in later years, used to say that while the scientist sees everything that happens in one point…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/vladimir-nabokov/vivian-bloodmark-a-philosophical-friend-of-mine-in-later-years-used/) [Vladimir Nabokov](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/vladimir-nabokov/) > [The prosaic man sees things badly, or with the bodily sense; but the poet sees them clad in beauty, with the spiritual sense.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/the-prosaic-man-sees-things-badly-or-with-the-bodily-sense-but-the/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) > [Not deep the poet sees, but wide.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/matthew-arnold/not-deep-the-poet-sees-but-wide/) [Matthew Arnold](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/matthew-arnold/) > [A poet sees things in two ways: First, as a child who never saw it before, and Second, as a dying man who will…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-a-michener/a-poet-sees-things-in-two-ways-first-as-a-child-who-never-saw-it/) [James A. Michener](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-a-michener/) > [The poet sees better than other mortals. I do not see things as they are, but according to my own subjective impression, and this…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-schumann/the-poet-sees-better-than-other-mortals-i-do-not-see-things-as-they/) [Robert Schumann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-schumann/) > [A poet sees a flower and can go on and on about how beautiful the colors are. But what the poet doesn't see is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-m-church/a-poet-sees-a-flower-and-can-go-on-and-on-about-how-beautiful-the/) [George M. Church](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-m-church/) > [“The poet who sees himself as a hero or a prophet, or a priest of the socio-political forces to which he is loyal, which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-d-o-brien/the-poet-who-sees-himself-as-a-hero-or-a-prophet-or-a-priest-of-the/) [Michael D. O'Brien](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-d-o-brien/) ## More by Friedrich Nietzsche > [Animals know nothing of themselves, and they also know nothing of the world.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/animals-know-nothing-of-themselves-and-they-also-know-nothing-of-the/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [“Every select man strives instinctively for a citadel and a privacy, where he is FREE from the crowd, the many, the majority-- where he…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/every-select-man-strives-instinctively-for-a-citadel-and-a-privacy/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [“It breaks my heart. Better than your words, your eye tells me all your peril. You are not yet free, you still search for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/it-breaks-my-heart-better-than-your-words-your-eye-tells-me-all-your/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [“79. A soul which knows that it is loved, but does not itself love, betrays its sediment: its dregs come up.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/79-a-soul-which-knows-that-it-is-loved-but-does-not-itself-love/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [We deceive ourselves when giving respect to the person for whom we have surrendered ourselves, when we respectively expect them to be as we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/we-deceive-ourselves-when-giving-respect-to-the-person-for-whom-we/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [“The great periods of our life occur when we gain the courage to rechristen what is bad about us as what is best.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/the-great-periods-of-our-life-occur-when-we-gain-the-courage-to/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [“What is life? Life - that is: continually shedding something that wants to die. Life - that is: being cruel and inexorable against everything…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/what-is-life-life-that-is-continually-shedding-something-that-wants/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [It is thus only this personal feeling of misery that we get rid of by acts of pity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/it-is-thus-only-this-personal-feeling-of-misery-that-we-get-rid-of-by/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [“Writers whose thoughts are expressed with clarity and precision are assumed by readers to be superficial. Where the meaning is obscured, then readers give…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/writers-whose-thoughts-are-expressed-with-clarity-and-precision-are/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [“he does not wear a twitching, mobile, human face, but rather a mask, as it were, with its features in dignified equilibrium; he does…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/he-does-not-wear-a-twitching-mobile-human-face-but-rather-a-mask-as/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [Chastity is a virtue with some, but with many it is almost a vice.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/chastity-is-a-virtue-with-some-but-with-many-it-is-almost-a-vice/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [The earth is like the breasts of a woman: useful as well as pleasing.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/the-earth-is-like-the-breasts-of-a-woman-useful-as-well-as-pleasing/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [“Of all that is written I love only what a man has written in his own blood.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/of-all-that-is-written-i-love-only-what-a-man-has-written-in-his-own/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [No shepherd and one herd! Everybody wants the same, everybody is the same: whoever feels different goes voluntarily into a madhouse.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/no-shepherd-and-one-herd-everybody-wants-the-same-everybody-is-the/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [Pain makes hens and poets cackle.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/pain-makes-hens-and-poets-cackle/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) [Explore all 3,486 Friedrich Nietzsche quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) ## More Poetry quotes > [I fell in love with social work, and that was my undoing as a poet.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-rakosi/i-fell-in-love-with-social-work-and-that-was-my-undoing-as-a-poet/) [Carl Rakosi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-rakosi/) > [The name Phenomenal Woman was inspired by Maya Angelo, who wrote 'Phenomenal Woman', a favorite poem of mine.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/meena-harris/the-name-phenomenal-woman-was-inspired-by-maya-angelo-who-wrote/) [Meena Harris](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/meena-harris/) > [A poet is wounded into speech, and he examines these wounds, meticulously, to discover how to heal them. The bad poet harangues at the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/samuel-r-delany/a-poet-is-wounded-into-speech-and-he-examines-these-wounds/) [Samuel R. Delany](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/samuel-r-delany/) > [“Time gives poetry to a battlefield...”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/graham-greene/time-gives-poetry-to-a-battlefield/) [Graham Greene](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/graham-greene/) > [The poetry from the eighteenth century was prose; the prose from the seventeenth century was poetry.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-hare/the-poetry-from-the-eighteenth-century-was-prose-the-prose-from-the/) [David Hare](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-hare/) > [“It took me years to learn to sit at my desk for more than two minutes at a time, to put up with the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erica-jong/it-took-me-years-to-learn-to-sit-at-my-desk-for-more-than-two-minutes/) [Erica Jong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erica-jong/) > [The word 'mundane' has come to mean 'boring' and 'dull', and it really shouldn't - it should mean the opposite. Because it comes from…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-dawkins/the-word-mundane-has-come-to-mean-boring-and-dull-and-it-really/) [Richard Dawkins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-dawkins/) > [“In the streets, the children scream, the lovers cried, and the poets dreamed,” he crooned, putting down the metal grill tongs to take my…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexandria-clarke/in-the-streets-the-children-scream-the-lovers-cried-and-the-poets/) [Alexandria Clarke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexandria-clarke/) > [Some minds corrode and grow inactive under the loss of personal liberty; others grow morbid and irritable; but it is the nature of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/washington-irving/some-minds-corrode-and-grow-inactive-under-the-loss-of-personal/) [Washington Irving](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/washington-irving/) > [You don’t read or overhear the voice in the poem, you are the voice in the poem.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/helen-vendler/you-don-t-read-or-overhear-the-voice-in-the-poem-you-are-the-voice-in/) [Helen Vendler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/helen-vendler/) > [All lyrical work must, as a whole, be perfectly intelligible, but in some particulars a little unintelligible.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/all-lyrical-work-must-as-a-whole-be-perfectly-intelligible-but-in/) [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/) > [The world's history is a divine poem, of which the history of every nation is a canto, and every man a word. Its strains…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-a-garfield/the-world-s-history-is-a-divine-poem-of-which-the-history-of-every/) [James A. Garfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-a-garfield/) > [I was interested in all kinds of things, whether it be Avatar, Mad Men, Troy, 300, Battlestar Gallactica, or the poems of Horace and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/daniel-mendelsohn/i-was-interested-in-all-kinds-of-things-whether-it-be-avatar-mad-men/) [Daniel Mendelsohn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/daniel-mendelsohn/) > [“I promise to respect and protect your aloneness, knowing that everything created must have its period of darkness: child and bulb, poem and personality.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-morrow-lindbergh/i-promise-to-respect-and-protect-your-aloneness-knowing-that/) [anne morrow lindbergh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-morrow-lindbergh/) > [“Things are more like they are now...than they have EVER been before!”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/uncle-arnie-mamath/things-are-more-like-they-are-now-than-they-have-ever-been-before/) Uncle Arnie Mamath [Browse all 21,625 Poetry quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Yet nothing can be more certain than this: what makes a poet a poet is the fact that he sees himself surrounded by figures who live and act before him, and into whose innermost essence he gazes. Because of the peculiar weakness of modern talent we are inclined to imagine the original aesthetic phenomenon in too complicated and abstract a manner. For the genuine poet metaphor is no rhetorical figure, but an image which takes the place of something else, something he can really see before him as a substitute for a concept. To the poet a character is not a whole composed of selected single features, but an insistently alive person whom he sees before his very eyes, and distinguished from a painter's vision of the same thing only by the fact that poet sees the figure continuing to live and act over a period of time. What allows Homer to depict things so much more vividly than all other poets? It is the fact that he looks at things so much more than they do. We talk so abstractly about poetry because we are usually all bad poets. Fundamentally the aesthetic phenomenon is simple; one only has to have the ability to watch a living play continuously and to live constantly surrounded by crowds of spirits, then one is a poet; if one feels the impulse to transform oneself and to speak out of other bodies and souls, then one is a dramatist”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Friedrich Nietzsche" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/yet-nothing-can-be-more-certain-than-this-what-makes-a-poet-a-poet-is/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Poetry" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/yet-nothing-can-be-more-certain-than-this-what-makes-a-poet-a-poet-is/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4cf/friedrich-nietzsche-15_poetry_yet-nothing-can-be-more-certain-than-thi_780223.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4cf/friedrich-nietzsche-15_poetry_yet-nothing-can-be-more-certain-than-thi_780223.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4cf/friedrich-nietzsche-15_poetry_yet-nothing-can-be-more-certain-than-thi_780223.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Yet nothing can be more certain than this: what makes a poet a poet is the fact that he sees himself…” — Friedrich Nietzsche", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Friedrich Nietzsche", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“Yet nothing can be more certain...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/yet-nothing-can-be-more-certain-than-this-what-makes-a-poet-a-poet-is/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/yet-nothing-can-be-more-certain-than-this-what-makes-a-poet-a-poet-is/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```