Sartre: Poetry and Prose

In my previous post I had a half thought regarding Poetry and Prose according to Sartre's What is Literature? I brought the book with me to the library today. So I thought I would quote you the section in which he distinguishes the use of language between the two. I am fairly tired and a lot has happened today so I will write more later. Anyway, here is the quote,

"For the poet, language is a structure of the external world. The speaker is in a situation in language; he is invested with words. They are prolongations of his meanings, his pincers, his attenae, his spectacles. He manuveurs them rom within; he feels them as if they were his body...The poet is outside language. Not knowing how to use [words] as a sign of an aspect of the world, he sees in the word the image of one of these aspects.

The art of prose is employed in discourse; its substance is by nature significative; that is, the words are first of all not objects but destinations for objects; it is not first of all a matter of knowing whether they please or displease in themselves, but whther they correctly indicate a certain thing or a certain notion."

And another quote on morality and literature (which we can substitute for art and beauty) that ties in with the previous quote and is good fodder for thought...

"The writer's universe will only reveal itself in all its depth to the examination, the admiration, and the indignation of the reader; and the generous love is a promise to maintain, and the generous indignation is a promise to change, and the admiration a promise to imitate; although literature is one thing and morality a quite different one; at the heart of the aesthetic imperative we discern the moral imperative." (my emphasis)