W. S. Merwin Quotes

W. S. Merwin
W. S. Merwin
American Poet
Born: Sep 30, 1927
Me Think Time World Writing You
Related authors: Edgar Allan Poe Emily Dickinson Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Maya Angelou Ralph Waldo Emerson Robert Frost T. S. Eliot Walt Whitman
Poetry is like making a joke. If you get one word wrong at the end of a joke, you've lost the whole thing. W. S. Merwin
You Word Joke Lost One Word Poetry Wrong Like Making End Get Whole Thing
Now all my teachers are dead except silence. W. S. Merwin
Silence Except Dead Teachers Now
Democracy's got endless problems and faults and dangers, but it's certain the alternatives are not better. W. S. Merwin
Democracy Better Problems Faults Dangers Alternatives Got Endless Certain
What turned me into an environmentalist, on my eleventh birthday, was seeing the first strip mine. W. S. Merwin
Birthday Me First Mine Strip Seeing Environmentalist Turned
I think poetry is as old as language, and both come out of the same thing - an effort to try to express something that is inexpressible. W. S. Merwin
Try Old Language Same Thing Think Out Something Both Poetry Come Inexpressible Effort Same Express Thing
I am too conscious of being an American to accept public congratulation with good grace or to welcome it except as an occasion for expressing openly a shame which many Americans feel, day after day, helplessly and in silence. W. S. Merwin
Good Day Silence Welcome Grace Too Shame Except Feel Openly Occasion Accept Am American Being After Which Public Many Expressing Conscious
What a great poem teaches you - and it's not intellectual at all - is the resonance in the language that's heard there. This goes back to the very origins of poetry and to the very origins of language. W. S. Merwin
Great You Language Resonance Back Poem Poetry Heard Intellectual Very Goes Teaches Origins
The Indians seemed to be living in a place and in a way that was of immense importance to me. So I associate learning to read - English, oddly enough - with wanting to know about Indians. I'm still growing into it. I've never outgrown that. W. S. Merwin
Me Learning Living Enough Way Immense Indians About Seemed Never Importance Know Read Still Oddly Wanting Place English Growing Associate
In a sense, much that is learned is bound to be bad habits. You're always beginning again. W. S. Merwin
You Beginning Sense Bad Bad Habits Habits Bound Learned Always Again Much
You have to be rather relentless about pushing other things out of the way. This activity of writing, which has no promises attached to it, comes to be given a kind of arbitrary but persistent importance. W. S. Merwin
You Writing Promises Other Way Relentless Out Kind Arbitrary About Rather Given Attached Pushing Importance Persistent Which Activity Things
The past is always - one moment it's what happened three minutes ago, and one minute it's what happened 30 years ago. And they flow into each other in ways that we can't predict and that we keep discovering in dreams, which keep bringing up feelings and moments, some of which we never actually saw. W. S. Merwin
Dreams Three Feelings Past Predict Other Saw Ways One Minute Minute Some Minutes Never Always Years Years Ago Discovering Up Happened Which Moment Moments Each Keep Actually Bringing Flow
I think this is one of the benefits of getting older: that one has that perspective on things farther away. One is so caught up in middle years in the idea of accomplishing something when, in fact, the full accomplishment is always with one. W. S. Merwin
Getting Older Benefits Perspective Older Think Something Fact Idea Always Caught Years Accomplishing Accomplishment Up Getting Middle In Fact Full Farther Away Things
He said you should write about 75 lines every day. You know, Pound was a great one for laying down the law about how you did anything. W. S. Merwin
Day Great You Every Day Law Down Every About Great One Laying Pound Write He Know Said How Lines Did Anything Should
The Arab world is erupting, which is extraordinary, and to see it happen is like watching rings spreading on a pool - it goes out; it varies so much. The spontaneity is wonderful, but very often, if it's not well organized, it breaks up, and it peters out. W. S. Merwin
Wonderful World Pool Extraordinary Arab Out Arab World Rings See Varies Like Spontaneity Well Spreading Up Very Goes Often Happen Which Breaks Much Organized Watching
Jeffersonian democracy, faulty as it is, and only the fragment of it that we have, is a thing of such preciousness, a thing of such value. W. S. Merwin
Democracy Value Fragment Faulty Only Thing
Your absence has gone through me like thread through a needle. Everything I do is stitched with its color. W. S. Merwin
Absence Needle Relatable Sad Relatable

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