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"I would say that American poetry has always been a poetry of personal testimony."
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"For awhile after you quit Keats all other poetry seems to be only whistling or humming."

"Women do not have as great a need for poetry because their own essence is poetry."

"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."

"From what the moderns want, we must learn what poetry should become; from what the ancients did, what poetry must be."

"In the grueling light that passed for day..."

"Poetry is an art, and chief of the fine art; the easiest to dabble in, the hardest in which to reach true excellence."
Explore more quotes by Mark Strand

"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."

"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."

"I believe that all poetry is formal in that it exists within limits, limits that are either inherited by tradition or limits that language itself imposes."

"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."

"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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