English poetry begins whenever we decide to say the modern English language begins, and it extends as far as we decide to say that the English language extends.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Some people think that English poetry begins with the Anglo-Saxons. I don't, because I can't accept that there is any continuity between the traditions of Anglo-Saxon poetry and those established in English poetry by the time of, say, Shakespeare. And anyway, Anglo-Saxon is a different language, which has to be learned.
Poetry is one of the destinies of speech... One would say that the poetic image, in its newness, opens a future to language.
Poetry begins where language starts: in the shadows and accidents of one person's life.
Few realise that English poetry is rather like the British constitution, surrounded by pompous precedents and reverences.
Poetry is fascinating. As soon as it begins the poetry has changed the thing into something extra, and somehow prose can go over into poetry.
Poetry is, first and last, language - the rest is filler.
My poems tend to have rhetorical structures; what I mean by that is they tend to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. There tends to be an opening, as if you were reading the opening chapter of a novel. They sound like I'm initiating something, or I'm making a move.
Poetry, almost by definition, calls attention to its language and form.
The Language Poets are writing only about language itself. The Ashbery poets are writing only about poetry itself. That seems to me a kind of dead end.
Part of what we love about poetry is the fact that it seems ancient, that it has an authority of ancient language and ancient form, and that it's timeless, that it reaches back.
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