"I certainly can't speak for all cultures or all societies, but it's clear that in America, poetry serves a very marginal purpose. It's not part of the cultural mainstream."

Poetry, Purpose, America

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"I certainly can't speak for all cultures or all societies, but it's clear that in America, poetry serves a very marginal purpose. It's not part of the cultural mainstream."

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"For awhile after you quit Keats all other poetry seems to be only whistling or humming."

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"When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses."

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"And she forgot the stars, the moon, and sun/ And she forgot the blue above the trees,/ And she forgot the dells where waters run,/ And she forgot the chilly autumn breeze;/ She had no knowledge when the day was done,/ And the new morn she saw not: but in peace/ Hung over her sweet basil evermore,/ And moisten'd it with tears unto the core."

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Explore more quotes by Mark Strand

"It's very hard to write humor."

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"And Robert Lowell, of course - in his poems, we're not located in his actual life. We're located more in the externals, in the journalistic facts of his life."

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"I tend to like poems that engage me - that is to say, which do not bore me."

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"I think the best American poetry is the poetry that utilizes the resources of poetry rather than exploits the defects or triumphs of the poet's personality."

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"Poetry is, first and last, language - the rest is filler."

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"A great many people seem to think writing poetry is worthwhile, even though it pays next to nothing and is not as widely read as it should be."

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"I am not concerned with truth, nor with conventional notions of what is beautiful."

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"Nothing is the destiny of everyone, it is our commonness made dumb."

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"And at least in poetry you should feel free to lie. That is, not to lie, but to imagine what you want, to follow the direction of the poem."

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"The number of people writing poems is vast, and their reasons for doing so are many, that much can be surmised from the stacks of submissions."

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