Those who actually set out to see the fall of a city or those who choose to go to a front line, are obviously asking themselves to what extent they are cowards. But the tests they set themselves - there is a dead body, can you bear to look at it? - are nothing in comparison with the tests that are sprung on them. It is not the obvious tests that matter (do you go to pieces in a mortar attack?) but the unexpected ones (here is a man on the run, seeking your help - can you face him honestly?).
A poem with grandly conceived and executed stanzas, such as one of Keats's odes, should be like an enfilade of rooms in a palace: one proceeds, with … - James Fenton
A poem with grandly conceived and executed stanzas, such as one of Keats's odes, should be like an enfilade of rooms in a palace: one proceeds, with …
- James Fenton
Windbags can be right. Aphorists can be wrong. It is a tough world. - James Fenton
Windbags can be right. Aphorists can be wrong. It is a tough world.
Babies are not brought by storks and poets are not produced by workshops. - James Fenton
Babies are not brought by storks and poets are not produced by workshops.
My feeling is that poetry will wither on the vine if you don't regularly come back to the simplest fundamentals of the poem: rhythm, rhyme, simple su… - James Fenton
My feeling is that poetry will wither on the vine if you don't regularly come back to the simplest fundamentals of the poem: rhythm, rhyme, simple su…
The writing of a poem is like a child throwing stones into a mineshaft. You compose first, then you listen for the reverberation. - James Fenton
The writing of a poem is like a child throwing stones into a mineshaft. You compose first, then you listen for the reverberation.
One problem we face comes from the lack of any agreed sense of how we should be working to train ourselves to write poetry. - James Fenton
One problem we face comes from the lack of any agreed sense of how we should be working to train ourselves to write poetry.
Lyric poetry is, of course, musical in origin. I do know that what happened to poetry in the twentieth century was that it began to be written for th… - James Fenton
Lyric poetry is, of course, musical in origin. I do know that what happened to poetry in the twentieth century was that it began to be written for th…
In rap, as in most popular lyrics, a very low standard is set for rhyme; but this was not always the case with popular music. - James Fenton
In rap, as in most popular lyrics, a very low standard is set for rhyme; but this was not always the case with popular music.
Saigon was an addicted city, and we were the drug: the corruption of children, the mutilation of young men, the prostitution of women, the humiliatio… - James Fenton
Saigon was an addicted city, and we were the drug: the corruption of children, the mutilation of young men, the prostitution of women, the humiliatio…
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