I do not give the honorific name of 'poetry' to the primitive and the unaccomplished. — Helen Vendler Copy Share Image
A poem needs imaginative rhythms as well as imaginative transformation of content. — Helen Vendler Copy Share Image
All good poets of the past, almost without exception, were at least bilingual if not trilingual. — Helen Vendler Copy Share Image
Twentieth-century American poetry has been one of the glories of modern literature. — Helen Vendler Copy Share Image
You don’t read or overhear the voice in the poem, you are the voice in the poem. — Helen Vendler Copy Share Image
“Without play at many levels of language, from phonemes to logical structures, a poem is merely prose with linebreaks added.” — Helen Vendler Copy Share Image
I was unnerved to learn in my twenties that the poems of Emily Dickinson that I had memorized as a girl were… — Helen Vendler Copy Share Image
I wouldn't be very happy if a poet read what I had written and said, 'What a peculiar thing to say about… — Helen Vendler Copy Share Image
If you like the precision and concision of poetry, a page of prose is unsatisfying in a certain way. And poetry is… — Helen Vendler Copy Share Image
I believe that poems are a score for performance by the reader, and that you become the speaking voice. You don't read… — Helen Vendler Copy Share Image
I would like to spend more time with Spanish poetry. I know French better than Spanish, but Spanish was my first language,… — Helen Vendler Copy Share Image
For the critic, criticism is a form of natural self-expression, as poetry is to the poet. So, for a critic, criticism is… — Helen Vendler Copy Share Image
You don’t read or overhear the voice in the poem, you are the voice in the poem. — Helen Vendler Copy Share Image
I wouldn't be very happy if a poet read what I had written and said, 'What a peculiar thing to say about this work… — Helen Vendler Copy Share Image
I like art history and art criticism. Leo Steinberg has always been my favorite. He's very original, very accurate and acute. — Helen Vendler Copy Share Image
I think that a lot of things are hard to read if you're not in the vocabulary flow of that particular discourse. I sometimes… — Helen Vendler Copy Share Image
If you like the precision and concision of poetry, a page of prose is unsatisfying in a certain way. And poetry is so direct. — Helen Vendler Copy Share Image
I liked teaching Henry James. When you look down at a Henry James novel from a helicopter height, you find an intricate spider web… — Helen Vendler Copy Share Image
The non-artists among us are always terribly busy, but finally disappear without a trace. — Helen Vendler Copy Share Image
I would like to spend more time with Spanish poetry. I know French better than Spanish, but Spanish was my first language, and my… — Helen Vendler Copy Share Image
The art of utterance persuades initially by its music and its rhythm, before semiotic or personal characteristics come into play. — Helen Vendler Copy Share Image
I like art history and art criticism. Leo Steinberg has always been my favorite. Hes very original, very accurate and acute. — Helen Vendler Copy Share Image
Twentieth-century American poetry has been one of the glories of modern literature. — Helen Vendler Copy Share Image
