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Mastery or possession
When something good comes out of you, is it yours — or are you the mouth for something you don't understand?
Inspiration can feel less like an achievement than something that happened through you.
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A little context
A sentence arrives finished. A melody turns up in the shower. The solution walks in while you're thinking about lunch. You didn't feel yourself make it, and when someone praises it you're not sure whether to say thank you or forward the compliment to whoever sent it.
Read alongside it1
ReadingNot by art, but inspiredAll good poets… compose their beautiful poems not by art, but because they are inspired and possessed. The poet is a light and winged and holy thing, and there is no invention in him until he has been inspired and is out of his senses, and reason is no longer in him.
All good poets… compose their beautiful poems not by art, but because they are inspired and possessed. The poet is a light and winged and holy thing, and there is no invention in him until he has been inspired and is out of his senses, and reason is no longer in him.
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