“Among those today who believe that modern poetry must do without rhyme or metre, there is an assumption that the alternative to free verse is a crash course in villanelles, sestinas and other such fixed forms. But most... are rare in English poetry. Few poets have written a villanelle worth reading, or indeed regret not having done so.” BelieveDoneTodayFormCoursesReadingWrittenModernPoetRegretAlternativesFixedAssumptionVersesCrashRhymeWorth ReadingFree VerseModern PoetryEnglish Poetry Author:James Fenton
“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".” TodayFormVoiceTermMemoriesSpeechRaisedVersesOrthodoxyModernismAftermathFree Verse Author:James Fenton
“Writing for the page is only one form of writing for the eye. Wherever solemn inscriptions are put up in public places, there is a sense that the site and the occasion demand a form of writing which goes beyond plain informative prose. Each word is so valued that the letters forming it are seen as objects of solemn beauty.” WritingEyeFormObjectsDemandPagesLettersOccasionsProseSiteSolemnInformativeInscriptions Author:James Fenton
“Free verse seemed democratic because it offered freedom of access to writers. And those who disdained free verse would always be open to accusations of elitism, mandarinism. Open form was like common ground on which all might graze their cattle - it was not to be closed in by usurping landlords.” MightFormCommonDemocraticAccessVersesCattleAccusationCommon GroundElitismLandlordFree Verse Author:James Fenton
“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.” FirstsArtHandsAgeTodayFormChoicesLinesEffortPoetFundamentalsStructureRhythmVanityDevelopingCharacteristicsIdiom Author:James Fenton
“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.” KindWholeFormLinesPracticeFourFamiliarRangeLengthPoeticVersesHymnsBallads Author:James Fenton
