“A glance at the history of European poetry is enough to inform us that rhyme itself is not indispensable. Latin poetry in the classical age had no use for it, and the kind of Latin poetry that does rhyme - as for instance the medieval Carmina Burana - tends to be somewhat crude stuff in comparison with the classical verse that doesn't.” KindDoeEnoughUseAgeStuffInstanceComparisonPoetry IsLatinVersesRhymeIndispensableGlancesMedievalCrude Author:James Fenton
“I've not been a prolific poet, and it always seemed to me to be a bad idea to feel that you had to produce in order to get... credits. Production of a collection of poems every three years or every five years, or whatever, looks good, on paper. But it might not be good; it might be writing on a kind of automatic pilot.” FeelsWritingYearsLooksKindIdeasMightOrderThreeFiveProducePoetPaperProductionsCreditBe GoodFive YearsCollectionsThree YearsPilotsBad Ideas Author:James Fenton
“"Love" is so short of perfect rhymes that convention allows half-rhymes like "move". The alternative is a plague of doves, or a kind of poem in which the poet addresses his adored both as "love" and as "guv" - a perfectly decent solution once, but only once, in a while.” KindMovingPerfectLove IsHalfPoetSolutionsAlternativesDecentAddressesConventionsRhymePlagueDove Author:James Fenton
“When we study Shakespeare on the page, for academic purposes, we may require all kinds of help. Generally, we read him in modern spelling and with modern punctuation, and with notes. But any poetry that is performed - from song lyric to tragic speech - must make its point, as it were, without reference back.” KindMayHelpingPurposeSongStudyModernSpeechPagesNotesAll KindsTragicAcademicSpellingPunctuation Book:An Introduction to English Poetry Source: An Introduction to English Poetry
“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
