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Quote by Michael Longley

“I suppose that as you grow older some sense of an accumulating oeuvre is unavoidable.”

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Michael Longley is an Irish poet born on July 27, 1939. His poetry is known for its profound humanistic concern and delicate portrayal of nature, featuring unique style and beautiful language. more

“In America, where you'd have thought the country's so huge it couldn't happen quite so cosily, everyone's giving his imprimatur to everyone else. You line up three or four well-known poets and a couple of eminent academics on the dustjacket, and the rest of academe follow like sheep. That's death really, if you take pleasure in it. Mind you, the occasional puff's hard to resist, but you shouldn't inhale.”

Ifs Giving Mind Wells Country Hard Happens America Three Lines Pleasure Known Four Poet Huge Couple Sheep Well Known Occasional Puff Inhale

Author:Michael Longley

“I'm not against ambition and reach, but if you can say it in four lines, why waste your time saying it in more? Challenge the world by all means, but it's bad for your poetry to take steroids.”

Ifs World Mean Challenges Lines Four Waste Ambition Steroid

Author:Michael Longley

“I don't know where the shape of a poem comes from. I certainly don't impose it. I write out of a jumble of emotions and vague notions and scraps of knowledge. At some stage a form or, rather, a shape mysteriously emerges.”

Knows Writing Form Emotion Stage Shapes Notion Vague Scrap

Author:Michael Longley

“I'm not the kind of poet who arranges treasure-hunts to please the academics and keep them busy. Poetry should be surprising in deeper ways.”

Way Should Kind Poet Please Busy Deeper Treasure Surprising Hunts Treasure Hunt

Author:Michael Longley

“For me the form, the stanzaic shape, is an endorsement, proof that I'm engaged with the Latin or Greek at an original level, that my versions are explorations.”

Form Levels Shapes Originals Proof Versions Greek Engaged Latin Exploration Endorsements

Author:Michael Longley

“Weddings and funerals have so much in common (except that in Ireland funerals are more fun - better food, better drink): at both, our senses are sharpened and we register much more than usual - a striking face or hair-do, the wind's behaviour, a bird singing.”

Faces Fun Common Wind Hair Drink Singing Bird Senses Funeral Usual Ireland Behaviour Register

Author:Michael Longley

“I work hard to make the poems as good as they can be, and if they're not good enough I scrap them. I find it difficult after a gap of a few years to tinker - I'm more likely to destroy.”

Ifs Years Hard Enough Difficult Hard Work Good Enough Gaps Scrap Not Good Enough

Author:Michael Longley

“Most poets' revisions are disastrous. They buckle and dent what was originally forged at a red-hot heat.”

Poet Red Hot Heat Revision Forged Buckles Red Hot

Author:Michael Longley

“When I'm assembling a book I concentrate as though I were writing a poem. A truly imagined arrangement will indicate gaps and generate new poems. I re-read the new poems in my folder in the hope that this might happen.”

Writing Book Might Happens Gaps Arrangements Assembling Folders

Author:Michael Longley

Quote by Michael Longley

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