Books
You speak As one who fed on poetry.
— Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton • Richelieu
Behind the line May contain spoilers.
Our reading
An editorial interpretation.
Poetry is imagined as food whose influence can be heard in someone’s speech. The comparison makes literary language something absorbed into the person, rather than simply quoted. These lines identify that quality without establishing whether the speaker admires it, mocks it or regards it with concern.
Context reviewed