"The art of the poem nowadays is something unstable; but at least the construction of the poem should make sense; you should know where you stand. Many questions haven't been answered as yet. Our poets may be wrong; but what can any of us do with his talent but try to develop his vision, so that through frequent failures we may learn better what we have missed in the past."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Poets from the United StatesDemocratic socialistsBeat Generation writersUniversity of Pennsylvania alumniPhysicians from New Jersey
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Interview with Stanley Koehler (April 1962), in The Paris Review : Writers at Work, 3rd series, Viking Penguin, p. 29
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Carlos_Williams
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams (17 September 1883 – 4 March 1963) was an American poet and physician.
66 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by William Carlos Williams →
Related Quotes
"I thought my friends were damn fools, because they didn't know any better way of conducting their lives. Still they c…"
"The storm unfolds."
"the set pieces of your faces stir me — leading citizens — but not in the same way."
"I lie here thinking of you:—the stain of love is upon the world!"
"One thing I am convinced more and more is true and that is this: the only way to be truly happy is to make others hap…"
"To tell the truth, I myself never quite feel that I know what I am talking about — if I did, and when I do, the thing…"
"It is in tune with the tempo of life — scattered yet welded into the whole, — broken, yet woven together."
"The job of the poet is to use language effectively, his own language, the only language which is to him authentic."
"Poetry demands a different material than prose. It uses another facet of the same fact … the spontaneous conformation…"
"Each speech having its own character, the poetry it engenders will be peculiar to that speech also in its own intrins…"