Home / Quotes / Quote by Diane Wakoski

Quote by Diane Wakoski

“I have always wanted what I have now come to call the voice of personal narrative. That has always been the appealing voice in poetry. It started for me lyrically in Shakespeare's sonnets.”

Quote by Diane Wakoski

Author

Diane Wakoski is an American poet born on August 3, 1937. Her poetry is known for its unique style and profound emotional expression, exploring themes such as personal identity, love, death, and religion. more

You May Also Like

“I think I'm a very good reader of poetry, but obviously, like everybody, I have a set of criteria for reading poems, and I'm not shy about presenting them, so if people ask for my critical response to a poem, I tell them what works and why, and what doesn't work and why.”

People Ifs Thinking Reading Asks Reader Response Very Good Critical Shy Criteria Presenting

Author:Diane Wakoski

“I think that great poetry is the most interesting and complex use of the poet's language at that point in history, and so it's even more exciting when you read a poet like Yeats, almost 100 years old now, and you think that perhaps no one can really top that.”

Thinking Years Use Literature Language Interesting Poet Exciting Complexes Poetry Is Most Interesting Great Poet Great Poetry Yeats

Author:Diane Wakoski

“I think that's what poetry does. It allows people to come together and identify with a common thing that is outside of themselves, but which they identify with from the interior.”

People Thinking Doe Together Common Interiors Common Things

Author:Diane Wakoski

“I'm passing on a tradition of which I am part. There's a long line of poets who went before me, and I'm another one, and I'm hoping to pass that on to other younger, or newer, poets than myself.”

Long Literature Lines Poet Tradition Passing Passings Long Lines Passing On

Author:Diane Wakoski

“Sometimes the archaism of the language when it's spoken is why we are all in love with the Irish today.”

Sometimes Today Literature Language

Author:Diane Wakoski

“Still, language is resilient, and poetry when it is pressured simply goes underground.”

Stills Language Resilient Pressured

Author:Diane Wakoski

“Other people have noticed more of an evolution than I have and so I'll try to tell you where I'm coming from and also relate it to what I think other people perceive.”

People Thinking Trying Literature Evolution Relate Perceive

Author:Diane Wakoski

“PC stuff just lowers the general acceptance of good work and replaces it with bogus poetry that celebrates values that in themselves are probably quite worthy.”

Values Stuff Acceptance Worthy Celebrate Good Work

Author:Diane Wakoski

“One, I have a wonderful publisher, Black Sparrow Press; as long as they exist, they will keep me in print. And they claim they sell very respectable numbers of my books, so I guess, and it's true, every place I go, my books are in libraries and on bookshelves.”

Long Book Literature Black Numbers Wonderful Claims Sells Presses Library Print Publishers Respectable Sparrows Bookshelves

Author:Diane Wakoski

“So, I've never been politically correct, even before that term was available to us, and I have really identified with other people who don't want to be read as just a black poet, or just a woman poet, or just someone who represents a cause, an anti-Vietnam war poet.”

People Want War Literature Causes Black Term Poet Available Vietnam Vietnam War Politically Correct Anti Vietnam War

Author:Diane Wakoski