Quote

First, I do not sit down at my desk to put into verse something that is already clear in my mind. If it were clear in my mind, I should have no incentive or need to write about it.

The problem with writing a book in verse is, to be successful, it has to sound like you knocked it off on a rainy Friday afternoon. It has to sound easy. When you can do it, it helps tremendously because it's a thing that forces kids to read on. You have this unconsummated feeling if you stop.

I have not the slightest pretension to call my verses poetry; I write now and then for no other purpose than to relieve depression or to improve my English.

The fact that something is in a rhymed form or in blank verse will not make it good poetry.

What I do say is that I can write verse, and that the writing of verse in strict form is the best possible training for writing good prose.

No verse can give pleasure for long, nor last, that is written by drinkers of water.

There are people who think it's easier to write books in verse, and it's definitely not.

Poetry at its best can do you a lot of harm.

Poetry is indispensable - if I only knew what for.