Quotessence
Home / Authors / Stephen Burt
Stephen Burt

Stephen Burt Quotes

Poet

Filter quotes by topic

AllLanguageLiteraturePoetPoetryReasonArtChallengesComplexityElectionFirstsGivingHelpingPeopleThinkingWorldWritingAbsenceAcademicAccomplishedAcknowledge

Famous Stephen Burt Quotes

“Good poems do a lot of things at once. Often, by doing so, they encourage us to acknowledge mixed and incompatible feelings. Good poems, like good works of history, resist monocausal explanations for anything. There's not one reason why I am angry or excited or hopeful, when I feel those things. And there's not one reason why President Obama won two elections. And there's not one reason why Donald Trump won the most recent presidential election.”

ReasonFeelingsPresidentElectionExcitedFeel GoodPresidentialAcknowledgeExplanationHopefulPresident ObamaGood WorkPresidential Election
Author:Stephen Burt
Create image

“Durable, memorable poetry is usually alert to complexity. A really good poem gives you a reason to read it 20 times, because the language in a good poem is doing a lot of work emotionally and a lot of work intellectually. That means durable poetry can help us think about complexity, can help us resist easy answers and help us step back. And it can help us sometimes calm down, and sometimes it can help us stay upset.”

ThinkingGivingMeanSometimesReasonHelpingLanguageEasyCalmUpsetMemorableComplexityPoetry IsCalm Down
Author:Stephen Burt
Create image