There is no objection to the proposal: in order to learn to be a poet, I shall try to write a sonnet.… — James Fenton Copy Share Image
The writing of a poem is like a child throwing stones into a mineshaft. You compose first, then you listen for the… — James Fenton Copy Share Image
In my opinion, it is easier to avoid iambic rhythms, when writing in syllabics, if you create a line or pattern of… — James Fenton Copy Share Image
One problem we face comes from the lack of any agreed sense of how we should be working to train ourselves to… — James Fenton Copy Share Image
Free verse seemed democratic because it offered freedom of access to writers. And those who disdained free verse would always be open… — James Fenton Copy Share Image
Some of my educated Filipino friends were aspiring poets, but their aspirations were all in the direction of the United States. They… — James Fenton Copy Share Image
Writing for the page is only one form of writing for the eye. Wherever solemn inscriptions are put up in public places,… — James Fenton Copy Share Image
The 1960s was a period when writers in the West began to be aware of the extraordinary eloquence and popular attraction of… — James Fenton Copy Share Image
In the writing of poetry we never know anything for sure. We will never know if we have 'trained' or 'practised' enough.… — James Fenton Copy Share Image
I prefer writing in the mornings, so to that extent I have a routine. I do reading and other things in the… — James Fenton Copy Share Image
If you're writing a song, you have to write something that can be understood serially. When you're reading a poem that's written… — James Fenton Copy Share Image
I've not been a prolific poet, and it always seemed to me to be a bad idea to feel that you had… — James Fenton Copy Share Image
Among those today who believe that modern poetry must do without rhyme or metre, there is an assumption that the alternative to free verse… — James Fenton Copy Share Image
When we study Shakespeare on the page, for academic purposes, we may require all kinds of help. Generally, we read him in modern spelling… — James Fenton Copy Share Image
There is no objection to the proposal: in order to learn to be a poet, I shall try to write a sonnet. But the… — James Fenton Copy Share Image
Poetry carries its history within it, and it is oral in origin. Its transmission was oral. Its transmission today is still in part oral,… — James Fenton Copy Share Image
A glance at the history of European poetry is enough to inform us that rhyme itself is not indispensable. Latin poetry in the classical… — James Fenton Copy Share Image
In song the same rule applies as in dramatic verse: the meaning must yield itself, or yield itself sufficiently to arouse the attention and… — James Fenton Copy Share Image
'Love' is so short of perfect rhymes that convention allows half-rhymes like 'move.' The alternative is a plague of doves, or a kind of… — James Fenton Copy Share Image
Lyric poetry is, of course, musical in origin. I do know that what happened to poetry in the twentieth century was that it began… — James Fenton Copy Share Image
At somewhere around 10 syllables, the English poetic line is at its most relaxed and manageable. — James Fenton Copy Share Image
In rap, as in most popular lyrics, a very low standard is set for rhyme; but this was not always the case with popular… — James Fenton Copy Share Image
The Italian word 'stanza' means 'a room', and a room is a good way to conceive of a stanza. A room, generally speaking, is… — James Fenton Copy Share Image
