The artificialness of language
 

Bernstein 108: "To come to language as a second tongue, to rethink and relearn the world in new and strange sounds, may inhibit a natural or unconscious acceptance of the relation of words to things. It may bring home the artificialness of any language" or drive home a "realization that we can shape, and are shaped by, the words we use"
 
"language is both continuous and discontinuous with the world, [it is] a thing that for a poet can be as plastic as transparent"
 
poets are aware of "the translucency that illumines words when they are heard as sound as well as sense"

> from Charles Bernstein's A Poetics (1992)

> tagged with #poetry_craft_techniques, #language, #reality, #sound,

> created Mar 5, 2025 at 2:46:48 PM


> part of unfinished everything


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unfinished everything is an original work / ongoing project (1997-present) by jeremy p. bushnell

selection, arrangement, and original text available for creative reuse under this licensing arrangement

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