Poetic knowledge is born in the great silence of scientific knowledge.
It's often assumed that British actors read Shakespeare and sonnets as we're going to bed at night and we're all very familiar with it.
As a child, I learned hundreds of poems by heart, which I can recite to this day.
All great poets have been men of great knowledge.
There's not a good poet I know who has not at the beck and call of his memory a vast quantity of poetry that composes his mental library.
The trouble with the performance poets is that they don't seem to have read anything. So there is not a real sense of the poetic tradition in their work.
Summary riposte To the dreary wail There's no knowing what Love is all about. Poets know a lot.
Rarely do you meet an American who knows his Wordsworth.
The more poetry you have in the head, the more poetry you will understand because you will be getting to the roots of what it is that makes people write poetry at all.
The poet exposes himself to the risk. All that has been said about poetry, all that he has learned about poetry, is only a partial assurance.
Allen Ginsberg was a world authority on the writing of William Blake, and had an incredible knowledge of classic literature and world politics.
Every individual ought to know at least one poet from cover to cover: if not as a guide through the world, then as a yardstick for the language.
Learn poetry by heart. If you know a poem by heart, no one can take it away from you, and you can take advantage of it anytime.
Shakespeare wrote better poetry for not knowing too much; Milton, I think, knew too much finally for the good of his poetry.
Sunshine cannot bleach the snow, Nor time unmake what poets know
