--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Still the question remains of what…" description: "\"Still the question remains of what actually speaks in a poem, if not subjectivity as historically constructed.\" — Thomas Harrison" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2a2/thomas-harrison-35893_poetry_still-the-question-remains-of-what-actua_672565.jpg" --- # Still the question remains of what actually speaks in a… ![“Still the question remains of what actually speaks in a poem, if not subjectivity as historically constructed.” quote by Thomas Harrison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2a2/thomas-harrison-35893_poetry_still-the-question-remains-of-what-actua_672565.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2a2/thomas-harrison-35893_poetry_still-the-question-remains-of-what-actua_672565.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2a2/thomas-harrison-35893_poetry_still-the-question-remains-of-what-actua_672565.jpg) > “Still the question remains of what actually speaks in a poem, if not subjectivity as historically constructed.” [Thomas Harrison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-harrison/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The quote questions what truly speaks in a poem, suggesting it's not just personal feeling but historically shaped subjectivity. **In simple terms:** Poems reflect socially constructed perspectives, not just individual feelings. Key Takeaway Recognize the historical context shaping poetic voice. Themes literature subjectivity history Mood reflective analytical Type critical philosophical When to use this quote - academic analysis - creative writing workshops - literary criticism - teaching poetry Key Concepts constructionism hermeneutics Questions to Reflect On - How does history shape a poet's voice? - Can a poem be truly objective? A Different Perspective Subjectivity alone cannot capture a poem's full meaning; context matters. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Poetry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/) ## Related quotes > [“We can fix that. We can fix anything. So the real question remains whether every problem is worth fixing.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kaya-mclaren/we-can-fix-that-we-can-fix-anything-so-the-real-question-remains/) [Kaya McLaren](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kaya-mclaren/) > [“So the real question remains whether every problem is worth fixing. The answer to that is no.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kaya-mclaren/so-the-real-question-remains-whether-every-problem-is-worth-fixing/) [Kaya McLaren](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kaya-mclaren/) > [“Bearing that in mind, the question which remains to us is this: what is humanity? What do we have to do to keep humanity…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/han-kang/bearing-that-in-mind-the-question-which-remains-to-us-is-this-what-is/) [Han Kang](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/han-kang/) > [It is a very great thing to be able to think as you like; but, after all, an important question remains: what you think.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/matthew-arnold/it-is-a-very-great-thing-to-be-able-to-think-as-you-like-but-after/) [Matthew Arnold](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/matthew-arnold/) > [Whether or not the artist can fulfill a social function is a question that remains unanswered.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorg-immendorff/whether-or-not-the-artist-can-fulfill-a-social-function-is-a-question/) Jorg Immendorff > [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/) > [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/) > [“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/) > [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/) > [“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 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/) > [“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/) > [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/) > [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/) > [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/) ## More by Thomas Harrison > [No art form points like poetry to this originality of language as to its essential and abiding concern.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-harrison/no-art-form-points-like-poetry-to-this-originality-of-language-as-to/) [Thomas Harrison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-harrison/) > [With the question of the effect of a poem, the topic of investigation shifts from that of textual autonomy to textual reception - to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-harrison/with-the-question-of-the-effect-of-a-poem-the-topic-of-investigation/) [Thomas Harrison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-harrison/) > [A jacket commemorating the Germans as champions of the 1990 World Cup is out of date two weeks after the event has passed.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-harrison/a-jacket-commemorating-the-germans-as-champions-of-the-1990-world-cup/) [Thomas Harrison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-harrison/) > [Other, far fewer, directors are more like the composer - conceptualizing the piece, scoring it, distributing its musical lines among a range of registers,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-harrison/other-far-fewer-directors-are-more-like-the-composer-conceptualizing/) [Thomas Harrison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-harrison/) > [Unlike metaphor, metonymy does not try to fuse images together.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-harrison/unlike-metaphor-metonymy-does-not-try-to-fuse-images-together/) [Thomas Harrison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-harrison/) > [Most film directors do not come up with their own subjects or write their own screenplays.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-harrison/most-film-directors-do-not-come-up-with-their-own-subjects-or-write/) [Thomas Harrison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-harrison/) > [To liberate words means first to shatter their function as vehicles of idea, memory, hope, or regret.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-harrison/to-liberate-words-means-first-to-shatter-their-function-as-vehicles/) [Thomas Harrison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-harrison/) > [A poem conveys not a message so much as the provenance of a message, an advent of sense.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-harrison/a-poem-conveys-not-a-message-so-much-as-the-provenance-of-a-message/) [Thomas Harrison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-harrison/) > [In recent decades this symbolic or metaphorical lyric has given way to one which leans toward metonymy.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-harrison/in-recent-decades-this-symbolic-or-metaphorical-lyric-has-given-way/) [Thomas Harrison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-harrison/) > [In an age where history is recorded on T-shirts, the very notion of dwelling on the deep structure of an experience has come to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-harrison/in-an-age-where-history-is-recorded-on-t-shirts-the-very-notion-of/) [Thomas Harrison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-harrison/) > [As witnesses that the things were not done in a corner.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-harrison/as-witnesses-that-the-things-were-not-done-in-a-corner/) [Thomas Harrison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-harrison/) > [Experience has ceded to a series of happenings, about which the most we can expect is information.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-harrison/experience-has-ceded-to-a-series-of-happenings-about-which-the-most/) [Thomas Harrison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-harrison/) [Explore all 13 Thomas Harrison quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-harrison/) ## 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": "Still the question remains of what actually speaks in a poem, if not subjectivity as historically constructed.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Thomas Harrison" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-harrison/still-the-question-remains-of-what-actually-speaks-in-a-poem-if-not/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Poetry" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-harrison/still-the-question-remains-of-what-actually-speaks-in-a-poem-if-not/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2a2/thomas-harrison-35893_poetry_still-the-question-remains-of-what-actua_672565.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2a2/thomas-harrison-35893_poetry_still-the-question-remains-of-what-actua_672565.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2a2/thomas-harrison-35893_poetry_still-the-question-remains-of-what-actua_672565.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Still the question remains of what actually speaks in a poem, if not subjectivity as historically constructed.” — Thomas Harrison", "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": "Thomas Harrison", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-harrison/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Still the question remains of what...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-harrison/still-the-question-remains-of-what-actually-speaks-in-a-poem-if-not/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-harrison/still-the-question-remains-of-what-actually-speaks-in-a-poem-if-not/#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 } } ] } ```