The art of writing poetry relies on knowledge of the world around us. To be able to absorb a scene and then translate it into written words is one of the most mystical processes in the universe. While there are so many ways to interpret and conceive of poetry, there are those poets who stand out from the rest and who are able to speak on behalf of a greater audience. These are a few fantastic quotes about writing poetry by such writers.
Poetry as a Metaphor for Life
"Wouldn't it be better to turn life into poetry rather than to make poetry from life? And cannot poetry have as its primary objective, rather than the creation of poems, the creation of poetic moments?" - Octavio Paz
Mexican poet Octavio Paz asks a very important question here: Why do people work hard to distinguish between life and poetry? Paz's works deal with a new kind of metaphysics, one focused not so much on human potential and life force, but on the life forces that flow in and out of the world. Paz shows that the aim of poetry should not be to perpetuate a static art form, but to create new life and vivacity.
The Contemporaneity of the Past
"The historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence; the historical sense compels a man to write not merely with his own generation in his bones, but with a feeling that the whole of the literature of Europe from Homer and within it the whole of the literature of his own country has a simultaneous existence and composes a simultaneous order. This historical sense, which is a sense of the timeless as well as of the temporal and of the timeless and of the temporal together, is what makes a writer traditional. And it is at the same time what makes a writer most acutely conscious of his place in time, of his contemporaneity." - T.S. Eliot in “Tradition and the Individual Talent.”
This excerpt from Eliot's famous essay expresses the belief that good writing engages all of the writing that comes before it and that good writers understand the lineage of literary ideas and movements. Through knowledge of the past, a writer does a better job of expressing ideas of the present.
Writing as Resistance
"Whether I admit it or not, I write to participate in the delusion of my own immortality which is born every minute. And yet, I write to resist myself. I find resistance irresistible." - Mark Strand
Mark Strand is a contemporary American poet whose poems are imbued with a deceptive simplicity. Here, Strand comments on the friction created by a mortal writer composing immortal words. If the purpose of writing is to be immortal, then why does so much poetry comment on the transient nature of the universe? Strand raises good questions with this quote.
The Poems of Other Creatures
"If the theory of evolution means anything, it means that the poems of other creatures, even though in languages we don’t know, may sometimes also speak for us." - Galway Kinnell
Galway Kinnell's poems deal with the natural world through the limited perspective of one man. With this quote, Kinnell comments on all of the systems of language that exist beyond human-to-human interaction. He shows that writing is more than just an attempt to communicate with other people by emphasizing all of the communicative properties of nature.
The Necessity of Poetry
Through their different ideas and styles, poets still uphold the necessity of their art form. Whether it is through transforming poetry into living, maintaining contact with the past, using poetry to resist the purpose of writing poetry, or communicating with nature, all poetry enlivens the qualities of the world people inhabit.
Megan Summers - I graduated from the University of South Carolina at Beaufort with a BA in English Language and Literature in 2008. I've worked in public ...
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