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Quote by James Arthur

“I'm a mix; I'm sure some of my Canadian friends find me very American, both in person and on the page.”

Author

James Arthur, born on March 2, 1988, is a talented British singer known for his unique musical style and heartfelt songs. His music has gained widespread popularity, with hits like 'Say You Won't Let Go'. more

“I do like Canadian poetry. Christian Bök, Anne Carson, Carmine Starnino, and Don McKay are a few of the Canadian poets whose work has been important to me. But I'm not sure that I do see poetry as a world apart. Some of my metaphors are based in the fantastic, but I try to be true to life as I understand it. That understanding is affected by my Canadianness, my Americanness, my whiteness, my gender, my age, my education, my experience...everything about me affects my view of reality. But I try to wrestle against those partialities, not embrace them.”

World Trying Important Reality Age Christian Understanding Poet Embrace Metaphor Gender Being True Fantastic Not Sure True Life Partiality

Author:James Arthur

“I think that being mindful of your own biases tends to lead you into ambiguity, not clarity, and that following those ambiguities is the only way to approach the universal.”

Thinking Clarity Ambiguity

Author:James Arthur

“I believe strongly in what John Keats called negative capability: the trait or practice that allows a poet to remain in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason. For Keats, William Shakespeare exemplified negative capability, and I do think it's extraordinary that for all the thousands of pages Shakespeare left behind, we really don't know much about Shakespeare's own personality or opinions.”

Thinking Believe Reason I Believe Opinion Doubt Mystery Poet Personality Negative Extraordinary Uncertainty Capability Traits Left Behind

Author:James Arthur

“William Shakespeare tried hard to see every facet of every question, probably because he was more interested in questions than in answers. That's a big part of what makes him great, in my opinion.”

Opinion

Author:James Arthur

“I wrote the poems in Charms Against Lightning one by one, over almost a decade, and I did not write them toward any theme or narrative. But once I really got serious about putting together a book, I began to see that in fact there were themes across the poems, if only because my own obsessions had brought me back time and again to the same ground. I realized that any ordering of the poems would determine how those themes developed over the manuscript, and how the collection's dramatic conflicts were resolved.”

Writing Book Together Serious Conflict Determine I Realized Obsession Dramatic

Author:James Arthur

“I don't think I did write any poems to fill narrative gaps. Not consciously, anyway. As much as possible, I try to discover my poems' subject matter through the act of writing, instead of deciding ahead of time what my poems will be about.”

Thinking Writing Trying

Author:James Arthur

“I want each poem to be ambiguous enough that its meaning can shift, depending on the reader's own frame of reference, and depending on the reader's mood. That's why negative capability matters; if the poet stops short of fully controlling each poem's meaning, the reader can make the poem his or her own.”

Enough Poet Negative Mood Capability Ambiguous

Author:James Arthur

“I want to reiterate that my understanding of the poem is not the poem's core, true meaning. Once a poem goes out into the world, the poet is just one more reader.”

World Understanding Poet

Author:James Arthur

“There were class differences among black people then and there are class differences among black people now. There is still an assumption among many people in American society that being black is its own class, a blanket class. That, I believe, is an erroneous and deeply offensive view.”

People Believe I Believe Black Assumption Black People Offensive Blanket

Author:Ayana Mathis

“There is a forgotten black middle class in America - a group which is huge but underrepresented in the media and in art. It's difficult to talk about these things, because it forces one to talk in generalities, but that's my view. I do think the idea of a blanket class for black people is unfortunately still present.”

People Thinking Art Difficult Black Forgotten Middle Class Black People Blanket

Author:Ayana Mathis

Quote by James Arthur

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