Communication Quote by Tony Harrison
““Poetry's the speech of kings. You're one of those Shakespeare gives the comic bits to: prose! All poetry (even Cockney Keats?) you see 's been dubbed by [Us] into RP, Received Pronunciation, please believe [Us] your speech is in the hands of the Receivers.””
About This Quote
Critiques how poetry is standardized into Received Pronunciation, losing diverse voices and reducing poetic speech to a uniform style.
In simple terms: Standardization silences diverse poetic voices.
Preserve linguistic variety in poetry.
Themes
Mood
Type
When to use this quote
- education
- publishing
- performance arts
Key Concepts
Questions to Reflect On
- How does uniform speech affect meaning?
- What value lies in dialectal expression?
May ignore benefits of shared standards.