"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, People, Fact, First

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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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Robert Morgan, American Soldier

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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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"Sweet as the tender fragrance that survives,When martyred flowers breathe out their little lives,Sweet as a song that once consoled our pain,But never will be sung to us again,Is they remembrance. Now the hour of restHath come to thee. Sleep, darling: it is best."

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

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"Poetry: the best words in the best order."

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"The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than Man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, is to be found in mathematics as surely as poetry."

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"I have had much to learn from Sweden's poetry and, more especially, from her lyrics of the last generation."

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"I don't think of myself all the time."

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"And if they haven't got poetry in them, there's nothing you can do that will produce it."

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"However, I learned something. I thought that if the young person, the student, has poetry in him or her, to offer them help is like offering a propeller to a bird."

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"I was very interested in American poetry for many years. Much less now."

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"People haven't got the interest in long long works these days. A lack of interest which I share."

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"I never think about poetry except when I'm writing it. I mean my poetry."

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"There are some friends you don't meet for twenty years and when you meet them again it's as if no twenty years has happened - you're lucky when that happens. I feel the same about books."

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"Well, I love fishing. I wouldn't kill a fly myself but I've no hesitation in killing a fish. A lot of men are like that. No bother. Out you come. Thump. And that's not the only reason."

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