John Hollander

We and the trees and the way
Back from the fields of play
Lasted as long as we could No more walks in the wood

I usually seem to finish a poem when I write it down. I may have been carrying the notion around in my head.

Ultimately poetic thought is interpretive.

I revise very little. I always write in long hand and revise when I type. I test them out when I read them aloud.

Metre is to rhythm as eye is to ear.

Very few writers of verse can read their work to keep their listeners aware of the beauty of sense, that sense of beauty from the powerful , delicate ways in which sense is made by poetry.

Reading a poem aloud by someone who understands it, can be a crucial experience, but better yet is reading it aloud oneself.

Poetry may be written on paper, but it’s an oral art.A good poem satisfies the ear .It creates a story or picture that grabs you.

English Prosody has tended to be a subject for cranks.

Contrastive stress is very important in English, as poems are full of invisible italicised contrasts of this kind.

Major poetry not only 'employs' metaphor, irony and other tropes (and is of them) but always and explicitly or implicitly considers the nature of the trope itself.

Inspiration comes within a framework. A poem that gets out of hand is not a poem.

Winter wields only the spades, Summer brandishes
Hot, black clubs, Spring shower hearts about and Autumn shows
A fall of diamonds in our climate of extremes

The warfare between poetry and philosophy certainly started with Plato, who was both poet and philosopher.

You can teach the writing of verse..like prose..an instrument..and the recognition of true poetry. The rest, writers must teach themselves.