Exploiting poetry …

… Unquotable Quotes | Capital Commentary. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

The problem with reducing complex texts into pull-quotes, blurbs, and slogans is the same problem political rhetoric tends to have reaching any intelligent, self-respecting audience. The poems of Machado and Stevens are both far more appealing in whole cloth than snippet, because good poetry gives and takes. Good art both shows and doesn’t show; it reveals in part, not in full, lest its seductive power be diminished. And great art contains and, in some way, accounts for death.