James Fenton Quotes

James Fenton
British Poet
Born: Apr 25, 1949
First Free Poet Song Writing You
Related authors: Christina Rossetti Elizabeth Bibesco George Herbert Helen Dunmore John Donne Lord Byron Samuel Butler Thomas Babington Macaulay
Metrics are not a device for restraining the mad, any more than 'open form' or free verse is a prairie where a man can do all kinds of manly things in a state of wholesome unrestrictedness. James Fenton
Man Free Manly State Mad Kinds Restraining More Open Free Verse Device Prairie Verse Than Any Where Form Wholesome Things
In my opinion, it is easier to avoid iambic rhythms, when writing in syllabics, if you create a line or pattern of lines using odd numbers of syllables. James Fenton
You Writing Easier Opinion Odd Line Lines In My Opinion Pattern Rhythms Create Avoid Using Syllables Numbers
The term 'epitaph' itself means 'something to be spoken at a burial or engraved upon a tomb.' When an epitaph is a poem written for a tomb, and appears in a book, we are aware that we are not reading it in its proper form: we are reading a reproduction. The original of the epitaph is the tomb itself, with its words cut into the stone. James Fenton
Book Words Reading Proper Something Poem Written Spoken Term Itself Stone Burial Form Reproduction Cut Means Epitaph Original Appears Engraved Aware Tomb
Generally speaking, rhyme is the marker for the end of a line. The first rhyme-word is like a challenge thrown down, which the poem itself has to respond to. James Fenton
Challenge First Down Respond Poem Thrown Generally Like Line End Itself Rhyme Which Speaking
Rhyme is a mnemonic device, an aid to the memory. And some poems are themselves mnemonics, that is to say, the whole purpose of the poem is to enable us to remember some information. James Fenton
Memory Remember Aid Say Some Poem Poems Purpose Device Enable Information Rhyme Themselves Us Whole
Great poetry does not have to be technically intricate. James Fenton
Great Technically Intricate Poetry Does
No poet is required to write in stanzas, or indeed in regular forms at all. Coleridge's 'Dejection: An Ode' has a rhyme scheme and sequence of long and short lines that goes without regular pattern, following the mood and whim of the poet. Such a form is known as an irregular ode. James Fenton
Long Poet Indeed Mood Following Scheme Write Known Without Lines Ode Goes Irregular Short Form Rhyme Pattern Whim Forms Regular Required Sequence
At four lines, with the quatrain, we reach the basic stanza form familiar from a whole range of English poetic practice. This is the length of the ballad stanza, the verse of a hymn, and innumerable other kinds of verse. James Fenton
Practice Other Range Kinds Poetic Hymn Reach Ballad Lines Verse Familiar Form Length English Whole Basic Four
At somewhere around 10 syllables, the English poetic line is at its most relaxed and manageable. James Fenton
Somewhere Relaxed Poetic Most Around Line Manageable English Syllables
The iambic line, with its characteristic forward movement from short to long, or light to heavy, or unstressed to stressed, is the quintessential measure of English verse. James Fenton
Light Long Characteristic Line Verse Quintessential Short Movement Heavy Measure English Forward Stressed
Poetry carries its history within it, and it is oral in origin. Its transmission was oral. James Fenton
History Carries Poetry Within Oral Transmission Origin
The iambic pentameter owes its pre-eminence in English poetry to its genius for variation. Good blank verse does not sound like a series of identically measured lines. It sounds like a series of subtle variations on the same theme. James Fenton
Good Genius Owes Variation Variations Poetry Blank Like Does Sound Sounds Lines Verse Same Subtle Theme Measured English Series
The voice is raised, and that is where poetry begins. And even today, in the prolonged aftermath of modernism, in places where 'open form' or free verse is the orthodoxy, you will find a memory of that raising of the voice in the term 'heightened speech.' James Fenton
Today You Memory Will Free Prolonged Find Voice Poetry Open Free Verse Term Verse Begins Where Form Aftermath Places Modernism Even Orthodoxy Raised Raising Speech
For poets today or in any age, the choice is not between freedom on the one hand and abstruse French forms on the other. The choice is between the nullity and vanity of our first efforts, and the developing of a sense of idiom, form, structure, metre, rhythm, line - all the fundamental characteristics of this verbal art. James Fenton
Today Art Freedom Age First Sense Other Our Characteristics Vanity Structure Poets Developing Between French Idiom Verbal Line Hand Efforts Any Form Rhythm Forms Choice Fundamental
One problem we face comes from the lack of any agreed sense of how we should be working to train ourselves to write poetry. James Fenton
Problem Face Sense Ourselves Poetry Write How Train Any Lack Should Working Agreed
In the writing of poetry we never know anything for sure. We will never know if we have 'trained' or 'practised' enough. We will never be able to say that we have reached grade eight, or that we have left the grades behind and are now embarked on an advanced training. James Fenton
Writing Training Will Enough Say Embarked Able Poetry Never Advanced Know Reached Sure Left Trained Grade Grades Behind Eight Anything Now
There is no objection to the proposal: in order to learn to be a poet, I shall try to write a sonnet. But the thing you must try to write, when you do so, is a real sonnet, and not a practice sonnet. James Fenton
You Try Poet Practice Must Objection Shall Proposal Write Sonnet Learn Real Order Thing
Nobody really knows whether they are a poet. I knew I was interested from the age of 15. James Fenton
Age Poet Knew Nobody Knows Whether Interested Really
A really interesting and happy time was when I first went to Florence as a student and studied Italian. I was living in a pensione on an allowance of £40 a month, which was princely. I did a lot of work and enjoyed myself immensely. James Fenton
Work Time Myself Happy First Living Month Immensely Student Allowance Studied Italian Lot Did Which Interesting Really Enjoyed Florence
The 1960s was a period when writers in the West began to be aware of the extraordinary eloquence and popular attraction of the Russian poets such as Yevtushenko and Voznesensky - oppositional figures who could draw crowds. The Russian poets recited from memory as a matter of course. James Fenton
Memory Matter Eloquence Extraordinary Draw Russian Poets Crowds Could Writers Period Attraction Course West Began Who Figures Popular Aware
Modernism in other arts brought extreme difficulty. In poetry, the characteristic difficulty imported under the name of modernism was obscurity. But obscurity could just as easily be a quality of metrical as of free verse. James Fenton
Quality Free Difficulty Other Extreme Characteristic Easily Brought Poetry Could Obscurity Free Verse Name Imported Verse Just Arts Modernism
Poetry carries its history within it, and it is oral in origin. Its transmission was oral. Its transmission today is still in part oral, because we become acquainted with poetry through nursery rhymes, which we hear before we can read. James Fenton
Today History Become Before Nursery Carries Poetry Through Part Read Because Within Still Hear Oral Rhymes Which Acquainted Transmission Origin
Imitation, if it is not forgery, is a fine thing. It stems from a generous impulse, and a realistic sense of what can and cannot be done. James Fenton
Sense Realistic Imitation Fine Stems Generous Forgery Done Impulse Cannot Thing
Some people think that English poetry begins with the Anglo-Saxons. I don't, because I can't accept that there is any continuity between the traditions of Anglo-Saxon poetry and those established in English poetry by the time of, say, Shakespeare. And anyway, Anglo-Saxon is a different language, which has to be learned. James Fenton
Time People Language Some People Think Say Those Some Anglo-Saxon Shakespeare Poetry Between Learned Accept Because Continuity Traditions Begins Any Established Different Anyway Which Different Language English By The Time
What I want, when I write a poem, is no more than this: that it be preserved in some published form so that, in principle, someone, somewhere, will be able to find it and read it. That is all I need, as a poet, and that is the beauty, the luxury of my position. My lyric is mine and remains mine. Nobody can ruin it. James Fenton
Luxury Will Poet Somewhere Beauty Preserved Lyric Ruin Mine Find Able Some Someone Poem More Remains Write Nobody Principle Read Than Want Form Published Need Position
In song the same rule applies as in dramatic verse: the meaning must yield itself, or yield itself sufficiently to arouse the attention and interest, in real time. James Fenton
Time Song Dramatic Rule Must Attention Arouse Real Verse Itself Yield Same Real Time Interest Meaning Sufficiently
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