Now that I’ve joined Pinterest, I’m experimenting with turning text into images. I don’t take a lot of photographs, so I thought I’d check out some of the free web services for making quote pictures. Here’s a first attempt for my board on Poets and Poetry:

This is a rather ironic quote, because what poet Robert Frost actually said is this: “I could define poetry this way: it is that which is lost out of both prose and verse in translation” (Conversations on the Craft of Poetry, 1959, cited by Wikiquote).

That’s both more tentative and more nuanced than the popular version of his statement above (on BrainyQuote and elsewhere online). “I could define poetry this way,” he said, rather than the definitive “Poetry is” of the popular version. Plus the original statement makes clear that there is poetry both in prose and what people might normally think of as poetry (i.e., verse).

So even though the original and the popular version are both in English, something was lost in translation as the original statement was turned into a popular quote. Do the brevity and clarity of the popular version make up for what’s lost? Or do they turn Frost’s original statement into something quite different? You be the judge.

It does look good though, doesn’t it? The background reminds me of losing the trees in the forest, so it goes with the spirit of the quote about losing something. Pin it using the Pinterest button below. Or make your own quote like I did with the free service at Quozio. Rated: FIVE STARS for beginners – easy to use, fast and free.

Writing/Reflection Prompt: Do you have a favourite way of turning quotes into images?

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