"Rhythm and repetition of sounds, words and phrases make spoken poetry sound different to ordinary discourse."

John Hollander Literature See all quotes by John Hollander →

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“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.”

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

“Poetic form is an abstraction from. or residue of musical form. The ghost of oral poetry never vanishes therefrom.All poetry was originally oral.”

“The large unphilosophical, 'poetic' or 'religious' questions are elicited from their precise and technical microcosms.”

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

Resonant Thoughts

"Jeff is one of my favorite musicians and singers of all time. Never have I seen such infinite musical potential in anyone. It's just gone. It's chilling how much it hurts."

— Jeff Buckley

Music1966–1997

#music

"poetry and every other art was and is and forever will be strictly and distinctly a question of individuality....poetry is being, not doing....if poetry is your goal, you've got to forget all about pu…"

— E. E. Cummings

Literature1894–1962

#philosophy

"In reality there are as many religions as there are individuals.... Religions are different roads converging to the same point. What does it matter that we take different roads, so long as we reach th…"

— Mahatma Gandhi

Politics1869–1948

#Metaphysics

"The sixteenth century transformed Middle English into modern English. Grammar was up for grabs. People made up vocabulary and syntax as they went along. Not until the eighteenth century would rules of…"

— Camille Paglia

Education1947

#writing