Lan Barnes wrote: > Good poets borrow. Great Poets steal. > - T. S. Eliot > > It amuses me that borrowing is plagerism in college and a best practice in > later life Unfortunately, this is one of those quotes that is frequently misquoted and misinterpreted. The original quote is:
"Immature poets imitate, mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different." The idea is that an immature poet may imitate a technique or style from another poet, but a mature poet "steals" in the sense that they integrate said technique or style and make it their own (i.e. synthesize something new that has unique qualities from the original work). Even when he talks about bad poets he isn't referring to plagiarism. The quote is about rather how poets of different skill and maturity learn from or are inspired by the works of others. --Chris -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-lpsg
