“Modern" poetry is, essentially, an extension of romanticism; it is what romantic poetry wishes or finds it necessary to become. It is the end product of romanticism, all past and no future; it is impossible to go further by any extrapolation of the process by which we have arrived, and certainly it is impossible to remain where we are who could endure a century of transition ?” EndsPastWishProcessImpossibleModernCenturyProductsEndurePoetry IsTransitionExtensionsRomanticismRomantic PoetryModern Poetry Author:Randall Jarrell
“Among those today who believe that modern poetry must do without rhyme or metre, there is an assumption that the alternative to free verse is a crash course in villanelles, sestinas and other such fixed forms. But most... are rare in English poetry. Few poets have written a villanelle worth reading, or indeed regret not having done so.” BelieveDoneTodayFormCoursesReadingWrittenModernPoetRegretAlternativesFixedAssumptionVersesCrashRhymeWorth ReadingFree VerseModern PoetryEnglish Poetry Author:James Fenton
“over and over again I am struck by the wordiness of modern poetry, as if language had replaced experience and must be more and more extreme, intricate and in a way divorced from life itself. It seems as if what we all need is a great purification - but how will that come about?” IfsWayNeedsSeemsLanguageModernExtremesReplacedDivorcedIntricatePurificationModern Poetry Author:May Sarton
“The reason modern poetry is difficult is so that the poet's wife cannot understand it.” ReasonPoetryDifficultWifeModernPoetPoetry IsModern Poetry Author:Wendy Cope
“As Popa penetrates deeper into his life, with book after book, it begins to look like a Universe passing through a Universe. It is one of the most exciting things in modern poetry, to watch this journey being made.” LooksMadeBookUniverseWatchesJourneyModernExcitingDeeperPassingPassingsPenetratePassing ThroughExciting ThingsModern Poetry Author:Ted Hughes
“The whole history of modern poetry is a continuous commentary on the short text of philosophy: every art should become science, and every science should become art; poetry and philosophy should be united.” ShouldArtPhilosophyWholePoetryUnitedModernPoetPhilosophicalPoetry IsCommentaryModern Poetry Author:Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
“Before people complain of the obscurity of modern poetry, they should first examine their consciences and ask themselves with how many people and on how many occasions they have genuinely and profoundly shared some experience with another...” PeopleShouldFirstsAsksHistoryModernConscienceComplainingOccasionsObscurityModern Poetry Author:W. H. Auden
“The great watershed of modern poetry is French, more than English.” ModernPoetry IsModern PoetryWatersheds Author:Robert Morgan
“What the world wants, what the world is waiting for, is not Modern Poetry or Classical Poetry or Neo-Classical Poetry - but Good Poetry. And the dreadful disreputable doubt, which stirs in my own skeptical mind, is doubt about whether it would really matter much what style a poet chose to write in, in any period, as long as he wrote Good poetry.” WorldWantWritingMindLongMatterWaitingMy OwnDoubtModernStylePoetPeriodsSkepticalModern PoetryGood Poetry Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton