Poetic Conventions Quotes

Well, it's a badge of honour for any self-respecting poet to be criticized by Auberon Waugh. But in a lot of ways my poems are very conventional, and it's no big deal for me to write a poem in either free verse or strict form; modern poets can, and do, do both.

It seems to me the structure of the Quartets is too imposed.

The spirit of poetry, like all other living powers, must of necessity circumscribe itself by rules, were it only to unite power with beauty.

You run into people who want to write poetry who don't want to read anything in the tradition. That's like wanting to be a builder but not finding out what different kinds of wood you use.

I feel in poetry there aren't that many rules that you need to absolutely live by depending on your style of poetry.

I think one of the things that language poets are very involved with is getting away from conventional ideas of beauty, because those ideas contain a certain attitude toward women, certain attitudes toward sex, certain attitudes toward race, etc.

I teach writing courses and first of all, I teach my students what prosody is.

As a schoolboy, poetry seemed defined by preciousness. It was all very rarefied.

Women are not supposed to have uteruses, especially in poems.