I. A. Richards, Science and Poetry (1926), ch. 7
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It is very probable that the Hindenburg Line to which the defence of our traditions retired as a result of the onslaughts of the last century will be blown up in the near future. If this should happen a mental chaos such as man has never experienced may be expected. We shall then be thrown back...upon poetry. It is capable of saving us; it is a perfectly possible means of overcoming chaos.
— I. A. Richards on Poetry
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "It is very probable that the Hindenburg Line to which the defence of our traditions retired as a result of the onslaughts of the last century will be blown up in the near future. If this should happen a mental chaos such as man has never experienced may be expected. We shall then be thrown back...upon poetry. It is capable of saving us; it is a perfectly possible means of overcoming chaos." in the context of "I. A. Richards, Science and Poetry (1926), ch. 7" to mean that wisdom is timeless.
Source: Wikiquote: "Poetry" (R)
The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
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About I. A. Richards
Ivor Armstrong Richards (26 February 1893 – 7 September 1979), known as I. A. Richards, was an English educator, literary critic, and rhetorician whose work contributed to the foundations of the New Criticism, a formalist movement in literary theory, which emphasized the close reading of a literary text, especially poetry, in an effort to discover how a work of literature functions as a self-contained, self-referential æsthetic object.
About I. A. Richards
Ivor Armstrong Richards (26 February 1893 – 7 September 1979), known as I. A. Richards, was an English educator, literary critic, and rhetorician whose work contributed to the foundations of the New Criticism, a formalist movement in literary theory, which emphasized the close reading of a literary text, especially poetry, in an effort to discover how a work of literature functions as a self-contained, self-referential æsthetic object.
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