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"In fact a lot of them I think are absolute baloney. Those Charles Olsens and people like that. At first I was interested in seeing what they were up to, what they were doing, why they were doing it. They never moved me in the way that one is moved by true poetry."
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"For awhile after you quit Keats all other poetry seems to be only whistling or humming."
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Personal Development

"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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"Old wives keep in memory word of things that once were needful for the wise to know."
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"Everything one invents is true, you may be perfectly sure of that. Poetry is as precise as geometry."
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"Women do not have as great a need for poetry because their own essence is poetry."
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"From what the moderns want, we must learn what poetry should become; from what the ancients did, what poetry must be."
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"In the grueling light that passed for day..."
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"Poetry is an art, and chief of the fine art; the easiest to dabble in, the hardest in which to reach true excellence."
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"I despair of ever writing excellent poetry."
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"The rudiment of verse may, possibly, be found in the spondee."
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"But I hang on to books. I love them. I even think they're very nice decor in a room - far better than paintings... That's not quite true!"
Love

"When I was asked to be Writer in Residence at Edinburgh I thought, you can't teach poetry. This is ridiculous."
Poetry

"I'm very gregarious, but I love being in the hills on my own."
Love

"When I go fishing I like to know that there's nobody within five miles of me."
Solitude

"In fact a lot of them I think are absolute baloney. Those Charles Olsens and people like that. At first I was interested in seeing what they were up to, what they were doing, why they were doing it. They never moved me in the way that one is moved by true poetry."
Poetry

"It's like breathing in and out to me. It's like having a conversation with someone who isn't there. Because it has to be addressed to somebody - not a particular person, or very rarely."
Conversation

"I said I have no powers of invention. Well, I also have no powers of mimicry."
Film

"When I talk of hearing a poet's voice speaking, I always think of it as in the presence of the man."
Poetry

"When I was a teacher, teachers would come into my classroom and admire my desk on which lay nothing whatever, whereas theirs were heaped with papers and books."
Books

"All those authors there, most of whom of course I've never met. That's the poetry side, that's the prose side, that's the fishing and miscellaneous behind me. You get an affection for books that you've enjoyed."
Poetry
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