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Quote by May Sarton

“poetry is first of all a way of life and only secondarily a way of writing.”

Quote by May Sarton

Author

American poet, born on May 3, 1912, and died on July 16, 1995. Known for her profound psychological insights and delicate portrayals of natural landscapes, May Sarton's poetry has had a significant impact on contemporary poetry, earning her numerous literary awards. more

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“I feel often very close to the ecstasy and anguish which lie at the very heart of poetry - I am writing a lot.”

Feels Writing Heart Lying Ecstasy Anguish

Author:May Sarton

“One could go on revising a prose page forever whereas there is a point in a poem when one knows it is done forever.”

Knows Done Forever Goes On Pages Prose Revising

Author:May Sarton

“In poetry compromise is fatal. In action of any cooperative sort it is inevitable. The thing is to find the balance.”

Action Balance Compromise Inevitable Cooperatives

Author:May Sarton

“Poems like to have a destination for their flight. They are homing pigeons.”

Flight Destination Pigeons

Author:May Sarton

“Poetry is a dangerous profession between conflict and resolution, between feeling and thought, between becoming and being, between the ultra-personal and the universal - and these balances are shifting all the time.”

Feelings Dangerous Becoming Balance Conflict Universal Profession Poetry Is Resolution Shifting Ultras

Author:May Sarton

“For me a true poem is on the way when I begin to be haunted, when it seems as if I were being asked an inescapable question by an angel with whom I must wrestle to get at the answer.”

Ifs Way Seems Answers Angel

Book:Writings on Writing

Source: Writings on Writing

“For poetry exists to break through to below the level of reason where the angels and monsters that the amenities keep in the cellar may come out to dance, to rove and roar, growling and singing, to bring life back to the enclosed rooms where too often we are only 'living and partly living.”

May Reason Levels Rooms Break Singing Angel Monsters Break Through Cellars Amenities Growling

Book:Writings on Writing

Source: Writings on Writing

“For poetry is, I believe, always an act of the spirit. The poem teaches us something while we make it. The poem makes you as you make the poem, and your making of the poem requires all your capacities of thought, feeling, analysis, and synthesis.”

Believe Feelings Spirit I Believe Teach Capacity Analysis Poetry Is Synthesis

Author:May Sarton

“Poetry finds its perilous equilibrium somewhere between music and speech.”

Speech Equilibrium

Book:Writings on Writing

Source: Writings on Writing

“each new poem is partly propelled by the formal energies of all the poems that have preceded it in the history of literature.”

Literature Energy Formal

Book:Writings on Writing

Source: Writings on Writing