“Those who actually set out to see the fall of a city or those who choose to go to a front line, are obviously asking themselves to what extent they are cowards. But the tests they set themselves - there is a dead body, can you bear to look at it? - are nothing in comparison with the tests that are sprung on them. It is not the obvious tests that matter (do you go to pieces in a mortar attack?) but the unexpected ones (here is a man on the run, seeking your help - can you face him honestly?).” MenLooksWarMatterHelpingBodyRunningFacesFallLinesCitiesPiecesFrontsBearsTestsAskingObviousSeekingHonestlyUnexpectedComparisonCowardSprungMortar Author:James Fenton
“At somewhere around 10 syllables, the English poetic line is at its most relaxed and manageable.” LinesPoeticRelaxedSyllablesManageable Author:James Fenton
“I don't see that a single line can constitute a stanza, although it can constitute a whole poem.” WholeLinesSingle Line Author:James Fenton
“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.” FirstsEndsChallengesLinesThrownRhymeMarkers Author:James Fenton
“The basic rhymes in English are masculine, which is to say that the last syllable of the line is stressed: "lane" rhymes with "pain", but it also rhymes with "urbane" since the last syllable of "urbane" is stressed. "Lane" does not rhyme with "methane".” DoePainLastsLinesRhymeMasculineStressedLanesSyllablesMethane 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
