Every American poet feels that the whole responsibility for contemporary poetry has fallen upon his shoulders, that he is a literary aristocracy of one.
- W H Auden
Too many poets act like a middle-aged mother trying to get her kids to eat too much cooked meat, and potatoes with drippings (tears). I don't give a damn whether they eat or not. Forced feeding leads to excessive thinness (effete). Nobody should experience anything they don't need to, if they don't need poetry bully for them. I like the movies too. And after all, only Whitman and Crane and Williams, of the American poets, are better than the movies.
- Frank O Hara
Kerouac: You're ruining American poetry, O'Hara.
O'Hara: That's more than you ever did for it, Kerouac
- Frank O Hara
Maya Angelou, the famous African American poet, historian, and civil rights activist who is hailed be many as one of the great voices of contemporary literature, believes a struggle only makes a person stronger.
- Michael N Castle
She was the Judy Garland of American poetry.
- James Dickey
For the past thirty years or so, much American poetry has been marked by an earnestness that rejects the comic. This has nothing to do with seriousness. The comic can be very serious. The trouble with the earnest is that it seeks to be commended. It seeks to be praised for its intention more than for what it is saying.
- Stephen Dobyns
I wonder what it means about American literary culture and its transmission when I consider the number of American poets who earn their living teaching creative writing in universities. I've ended up doing that myself.
- Marilyn Hacker
Jewel moved 432,000 hardcover copies of A Night Without Armor, thereby making her the best-selling American poet of the past fifty years.
- Chuck Klosterman
I never thought of myself as a New York poet or as an American poet.
- Kenneth Koch
I think there's no excuse for the American poetry reader not knowing a good deal about what is going on in the rest of the world.
- James Laughlin
..in the last few years American poetry has come out of a poetry of complaint, not praising, and it was initially maybe rich. And it can continue to be rich if we remember that we shouldn't write out of complaint. We should write out of grief, but not grievance. Grief is rich, ecstatic. But grievance is not -- it's a complaint, it's whining.
- Li Young Lee
I was very interested in American poetry for many years. Much less now.
- Norman Maccaig
Some people swear by writing courses, but whether it really helps American poetry, I have doubts.
- Robert Morgan
I don't think the creative writing industry has helped American poetry.
- Robert Morgan
I don't think American poetry has gotten any better in the past 35 years. Oddly enough, creative writing programs seem to have been good for fiction, and I would not have predicted that.
- Robert Morgan
I defer to all these other American poets who, for some reason, I both envy and admire.
- Charles Olson
American poetry has been part of a culture in conflict....We are a people tending toward democracy at the level of hope; at another level, the economy of the nation, the empire of business within the republic, both include in their basic premise the idea of perpetual warfare
- Muriel Rukeyser
I think the best American poetry is the poetry that utilizes the resources of poetry rather than exploits the defects or triumphs of the poet's personality.
- Mark Strand
I would say that American poetry has always been a poetry of personal testimony.
- Mark Strand
High and low culture come together in all Post Modern art, and American poetry is not excluded from this.
- Diane Wakoski
From reading a previous answer, you know that I consider all those aspects to be part of American cultural myth and thus they figure into good American poetry, whether the poet is aware of what he is doing or not.
- Diane Wakoski
Distinctly American poetry is usually written in the context of one's geographic landscape, sometimes out of one's cultural myths, and often with reference to gender and race or ethnic origins.
- Diane Wakoski
American poets celebrate their bodies, very specifically, as Whitman did.
- Diane Wakoski
I definitely wish to distinguish American poetry from British or other English language poetry.
- Diane Wakoski
American poetry, like American painting, is always personal with an emphasis on the individuality of the poet.
- Diane Wakoski
- W H Auden
Too many poets act like a middle-aged mother trying to get her kids to eat too much cooked meat, and potatoes with drippings (tears). I don't give a damn whether they eat or not. Forced feeding leads to excessive thinness (effete). Nobody should experience anything they don't need to, if they don't need poetry bully for them. I like the movies too. And after all, only Whitman and Crane and Williams, of the American poets, are better than the movies.
- Frank O Hara
Kerouac: You're ruining American poetry, O'Hara.
O'Hara: That's more than you ever did for it, Kerouac
- Frank O Hara
Maya Angelou, the famous African American poet, historian, and civil rights activist who is hailed be many as one of the great voices of contemporary literature, believes a struggle only makes a person stronger.
- Michael N Castle
She was the Judy Garland of American poetry.
- James Dickey
For the past thirty years or so, much American poetry has been marked by an earnestness that rejects the comic. This has nothing to do with seriousness. The comic can be very serious. The trouble with the earnest is that it seeks to be commended. It seeks to be praised for its intention more than for what it is saying.
- Stephen Dobyns
I wonder what it means about American literary culture and its transmission when I consider the number of American poets who earn their living teaching creative writing in universities. I've ended up doing that myself.
- Marilyn Hacker
Jewel moved 432,000 hardcover copies of A Night Without Armor, thereby making her the best-selling American poet of the past fifty years.
- Chuck Klosterman
I never thought of myself as a New York poet or as an American poet.
- Kenneth Koch
I think there's no excuse for the American poetry reader not knowing a good deal about what is going on in the rest of the world.
- James Laughlin
..in the last few years American poetry has come out of a poetry of complaint, not praising, and it was initially maybe rich. And it can continue to be rich if we remember that we shouldn't write out of complaint. We should write out of grief, but not grievance. Grief is rich, ecstatic. But grievance is not -- it's a complaint, it's whining.
- Li Young Lee
I was very interested in American poetry for many years. Much less now.
- Norman Maccaig
Some people swear by writing courses, but whether it really helps American poetry, I have doubts.
- Robert Morgan
I don't think the creative writing industry has helped American poetry.
- Robert Morgan
I don't think American poetry has gotten any better in the past 35 years. Oddly enough, creative writing programs seem to have been good for fiction, and I would not have predicted that.
- Robert Morgan
I defer to all these other American poets who, for some reason, I both envy and admire.
- Charles Olson
American poetry has been part of a culture in conflict....We are a people tending toward democracy at the level of hope; at another level, the economy of the nation, the empire of business within the republic, both include in their basic premise the idea of perpetual warfare
- Muriel Rukeyser
I think the best American poetry is the poetry that utilizes the resources of poetry rather than exploits the defects or triumphs of the poet's personality.
- Mark Strand
I would say that American poetry has always been a poetry of personal testimony.
- Mark Strand
High and low culture come together in all Post Modern art, and American poetry is not excluded from this.
- Diane Wakoski
From reading a previous answer, you know that I consider all those aspects to be part of American cultural myth and thus they figure into good American poetry, whether the poet is aware of what he is doing or not.
- Diane Wakoski
Distinctly American poetry is usually written in the context of one's geographic landscape, sometimes out of one's cultural myths, and often with reference to gender and race or ethnic origins.
- Diane Wakoski
American poets celebrate their bodies, very specifically, as Whitman did.
- Diane Wakoski
I definitely wish to distinguish American poetry from British or other English language poetry.
- Diane Wakoski
American poetry, like American painting, is always personal with an emphasis on the individuality of the poet.
- Diane Wakoski
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