"Can the ear hear a thirteen-syllable line as consisting of thirteen syllables? I don't think so, but I think that a series of thirteen-syllable lines (supposing that was the length chosen) would, after a while, begin to have a characteristic resemblance. For the most part, though, counting the syllables seems to be something that works, if it works, for the poet. It is a private method of organization."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Poets from EnglandUniversity of Oxford facultyCritics from the United KingdomJournalists from England20th-century British poets
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Ch. 18: Syllabics (p. 99)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Fenton
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
James Fenton
17 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by James Fenton β
Related Quotes
"Poetry carries its history within it, and it is oral in its origins, its transmission was oral."
"Poetry is not a metrical exercise."
"It is not what they built. It is what they knocked down. It is not the houses. It is the spaces between the houses. Iβ¦"
"Yes You have come upon the fabled lands where myths Go when they die, But some, especially the Brummagem capitalist Jβ¦"
"A serious mistake in a nightie, A grave disappointment all round Is all that you'll get from th'Almighty, Is all thatβ¦"
"Windbags can be right. Aphorists can be wrong. It is a tough world."
"The writing of a poem is like a child throwing stones into a mineshaft. You compose first, then you listen for the reβ¦"
"Imitation, if it is not forgery, is a fine thing. It stems from a generous impulse, and a realistic sense of what canβ¦"
"We are never such kleptomaniacs as in our juvenilia. We steal from our masters. We steal from our friends, from our eβ¦"
"There is always a nasty surprise in store for the imperial mind. It is typical of the imperial point of view that it β¦"