Truly fine poetry must be read aloud. A good poem does not allow itself to be read in a low voice or silently. If we can read it silently, it is not a valid poem: a poem demands pronunciation. Poetry always remembers that it was an oral art before it was a written art. It remembers that it was first song." - Meaning and context.">
QuotesCosmos
"The Divine Comedy" (1977)
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Truly fine poetry must be read aloud. A good poem does not allow itself to be read in a low voice or silently. If we can read it silently, it is not a valid poem: a poem demands pronunciation. Poetry always remembers that it was an oral art before it was a written art. It remembers that it was first song.

— Jorge Luis Borges

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Truly fine poetry must be read aloud. A good poem does not allow itself to be read in a low voice or silently. If we can read it silently, it is not a valid poem: a poem demands pronunciation. Poetry always remembers that it was an oral art before it was a written art. It remembers that it was first song." in the context of ""The Divine Comedy" (1977)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Jorge Luis Borges" (Quotes: In these selections the quotes from a story or essay are listed among the earliest collections which are known to contain it.) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app

Tags

#Jorge Luis Borges#read#poem#remembers#silently#poetry#art#pronunciation#demands#written#itself#always
Jorge Luis Borges

About Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges (24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine writer who is considered one of the foremost literary figures of the 20th century. Most famous in the English speaking world for his short stories and fictive essays, Borges was also a poet, critic, translator and man of letters.