I can't imagine ever writing anything of any kind on a machine. I never tried to write either poetry or prose on a typewriter. I like to do it on useless paper, scrap paper, because it's of no importance.
W. S. MerwinRead
What a great poem teaches you - and it's not intellectual at all - is the resonance in the language that's heard there. This goes back to the very origins of poetry and to the very origins of language.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A great poem evokes deep emotional responses through its language rather than through intellectual analysis.
W. S. Merwin emphasizes that the true essence of poetry lies in the emotional resonance it creates through language. He suggests that rather than focusing on intellectual dissection, one should appreciate the inherent musicality and emotional depth found within poetic expression, which connects to the fundamental nature of language and human experience.
Themes
PoetryLanguageEmotionResonanceArt
In practice
Example use cases
In a poetry reading event, one might say this quote to emphasize the importance of emotional connection in poetry.
More from W. S. Merwin
All quotes →I think there's a kind of desperate hope built into poetry that one really wants, hopelessly, to save the world. One is trying to say everything that can be said for the things that one loves while there's still time.
W. S. MerwinRead
The kind of writing that matters most to me is something you don't learn about. It's constantly coming out of what I don't know rather than what I do know.
W. S. MerwinRead
I say to my breath once again, little breath come from in front of me, go away behind me, row me quietly now, as far as you can, for I am an abyss that I am trying to cross.
W. S. MerwinRead
Through all of youth I was looking for you_x000D_ without knowing what I was looking for_x000D_ part memory part distance remaining _x000D_ mine in the ways that I learn to miss you_x000D_ from what we cannot hold the stars are made.
W. S. MerwinRead
What I really believe is the only hopeful relation between our life and the whole of life is one of reverence and respect and of feeling at one with it. The other attitude which is the one our society is based on is devastating and it is killing the earth and it is killing us too.
W. S. MerwinRead
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