The Poetry of Saint Therese of Lisieux Quotes

“Thus the ordinary, uncontrolled chattering we call “prose” changes its nature, like coal becoming incandescent. Poetry resembles music.”
― Thérèse de Lisieux, The Poetry of Saint Therese of Lisieux

“Translating poetry means taking a risk. The poetry of St. Thérèse, so simple, fresh, and pure, is particularly challenging to render into another language.”
― Thérèse de Lisieux, The Poetry of Saint Therese of Lisieux

“For Thérèse, poetry was not “art for amusement,” because she did not write for her own satisfaction but out of duty, or at least with a concern to serve, to help, and to encourage.6”
― Thérèse de Lisieux, The Poetry of Saint Therese of Lisieux

“If we examine the poems of Thérèse of Lisieux at all, they reveal themselves richer than we first thought. And this is the problem with her poetry: We have to go beyond the simple style, which is naturally and deliberately artless—as is fitting for a “Carmelite poem”—to discover the treasures it conceals.”
― Thérèse de Lisieux, The Poetry of Saint Therese of Lisieux

“The one, more Latin, more Roman, closer to eloquence than to the literal word, aims at a certain effect, at magic. The other, more Greek, more Hellenistic, seeks transparency flowing from the source.”
― Thérèse de Lisieux, The Poetry of Saint Therese of Lisieux