--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: I have taught the long poem off and on…" description: "\"I have taught the long poem off and on for years. The more book-length poems I read and studied and taught the more interested I was in the possibiliti..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ed0/c-d-wright-28793_art_i-have-taught-the-long-poem-off-and-on-f_2293397.png" --- # I have taught the long poem off and on for years. The more… ![“I have taught the long poem off and on for years. The more book-length poems I read and studied and taught the more interested I was in the possibilities in writing a poetry that applied formal and substantive options of narrative and non-narrative, lyric and non-lyric. I found many pleasures in…” quote by C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ed0/c-d-wright-28793_art_i-have-taught-the-long-poem-off-and-on-f_2293397.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ed0/c-d-wright-28793_art_i-have-taught-the-long-poem-off-and-on-f_2293397.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ed0/c-d-wright-28793_art_i-have-taught-the-long-poem-off-and-on-f_2293397.png) > “I have taught the long poem off and on for years. The more book-length poems I read and studied and taught the more interested I was in the possibilities in writing a poetry that applied formal and substantive options of narrative and non-narrative, lyric and non-lyric. I found many pleasures in this kind of writing. The long poem is as old as the art form.” [C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Explores the richness of long poems, blending narrative and lyric forms, and the joy of teaching them. **In simple terms:** Long poems combine story and lyric, offering creative freedom. Key Takeaway Embrace diverse poetic structures. Themes creativity education form tradition Mood inquisitive enthusiastic Type educational inspirational When to use this quote - teaching poetry - writing workshops - literary analysis Key Concepts poetic form narrative lyricism Questions to Reflect On - How does form affect meaning? - What draws you to long poems? A Different Perspective May be inaccessible to some readers. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Art](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/art/) [Art form](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/art-form/) [Pleasure](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/pleasure/) [Poetry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/) [Possibility](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/possibility/) [Writing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writing/) ## Related quotes > [I have always written poetry but I have never applied it to songwriting.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janine-turner/i-have-always-written-poetry-but-i-have-never-applied-it-to/) [Janine Turner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janine-turner/) > [Granddad taught me a long time ago, act like you've been there before.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jason-witten/granddad-taught-me-a-long-time-ago-act-like-you-ve-been-there-before/) [Jason Witten](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jason-witten/) > [E-40 taught me a long time ago to try different things with my voice, experiment, and only roll with it if it feels right.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jay-rock/e-40-taught-me-a-long-time-ago-to-try-different-things-with-my-voice/) [Jay Rock](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jay-rock/) > [A book, I was taught long ago in English class, is a living and breathing document that grows richer with each new reading.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/malcolm-gladwell/a-book-i-was-taught-long-ago-in-english-class-is-a-living-and/) [Malcolm Gladwell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/malcolm-gladwell/) > [“An epic without a focus - without a single action, a coherent plot, a single terrible point to make - was just a very…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/daniel-mendelsohn/an-epic-without-a-focus-without-a-single-action-a-coherent-plot-a/) [Daniel Mendelsohn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/daniel-mendelsohn/) > [Poe's saying that a long poem is a sequence of short ones is perfectly just.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-drinkwater/poe-s-saying-that-a-long-poem-is-a-sequence-of-short-ones-is/) [John Drinkwater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-drinkwater/) > [I do think that the long poem speaks for an inner need for continuity. We live in a time of so many losses, disruptions,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alison-hawthorne-deming/i-do-think-that-the-long-poem-speaks-for-an-inner-need-for-continuity/) [Alison Hawthorne Deming](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alison-hawthorne-deming/) > [I shook myself; I was dreaming. As I went to bed the words of the eighth-grade class's teacher, when the class got to Evangeline…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/randall-jarrell/i-shook-myself-i-was-dreaming-as-i-went-to-bed-the-words-of-the/) [Randall Jarrell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/randall-jarrell/) > [In a long poem or a sequence of poems, you're trying to formalize your obsessions and give them a shape and a name. The…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kevin-young/in-a-long-poem-or-a-sequence-of-poems-you-re-trying-to-formalize-your/) [Kevin Young](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kevin-young/) > [I like the dance between sustained focus and digression that the long poem invites. A controlling metaphor helps to sustain the long poem.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alison-hawthorne-deming/i-like-the-dance-between-sustained-focus-and-digression-that-the-long/) [Alison Hawthorne Deming](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alison-hawthorne-deming/) > [I would not say I chose to write long poems on a conscious level. The long poem has been a relative constant.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/i-would-not-say-i-chose-to-write-long-poems-on-a-conscious-level-the/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [A long poem is a test of invention which I take to be the Polar star of poetry, as fancy is the sails, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-keats/a-long-poem-is-a-test-of-invention-which-i-take-to-be-the-polar-star/) [John Keats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-keats/) > [ I did a film recently in the Republic of Georgia \[upcoming 'Halo of Stars'\] which was based on a long poem written by the… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lily-collins/i-did-a-film-recently-in-the-republic-of-georgia-upcoming-halo-of/) [Lily Collins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lily-collins/) > [“Girls are cruelest to themselves,” observes Anne Carson in “The Glass Essay,” her brilliant long poem about the ravages of female anger, loneliness, grief,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/maggie-nelson/girls-are-cruelest-to-themselves-observes-anne-carson-in-the-glass/) [Maggie Nelson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/maggie-nelson/) > [Quart of whiskey a day for months working hard on a long poem. Wife hiding bottles, myself hiding bottles. Murderous and suicidal. Many hospitalizations,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-taylor/quart-of-whiskey-a-day-for-months-working-hard-on-a-long-poem-wife/) [James Taylor](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-taylor/) ## More by C.D. Wright > [There is an idealism associated with poetry I would not dispel but question. It doesn't change anything except within. It shifts your insides around.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/there-is-an-idealism-associated-with-poetry-i-would-not-dispel-but/) [C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/) > [Poetry is the language of intensity. Because we are going to die, an expression of intensity is justified.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/poetry-is-the-language-of-intensity-because-we-are-going-to-die-an/) [C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/) > [It is a function of poetry to locate those zones inside us that would be free, and declare them so.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/it-is-a-function-of-poetry-to-locate-those-zones-inside-us-that-would/) [C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/) > [Almost none of the poetries I admire stick to their labels, native or adopted ones. Rather, they are vagrant in their identifications. Tramp poets,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/almost-none-of-the-poetries-i-admire-stick-to-their-labels-native-or/) [C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/) > [“I believe the word used wrongly distorts the world.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/i-believe-the-word-used-wrongly-distorts-the-world/) [C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/) > [One opinion I share with the Dadaists is that art-making presupposes a revolutionary state of mind. Assimilating the practice into commodity or symbol of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/one-opinion-i-share-with-the-dadaists-is-that-art-making-presupposes/) [C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/) > [Poetry is a necessity of life,](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/poetry-is-a-necessity-of-life/) [C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/) > [Poetry requires deliberate movement in its direction, a filament of faith in its persistence, receptivity to its fundamental worthwhileness. Within its unanesthetized heart there…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/poetry-requires-deliberate-movement-in-its-direction-a-filament-of/) [C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/) > [“If the incision of our words amounts to nothing but a feeling, a slow motion, it will still cut a better swath than the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/if-the-incision-of-our-words-amounts-to-nothing-but-a-feeling-a-slow/) [C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/) > [Poetry seems especially like nothing else so much as itself. Poetry is not like, it is the very lining of the inner life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/poetry-seems-especially-like-nothing-else-so-much-as-itself-poetry-is/) [C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/) > [The artistic reward for refuting the received national tradition is liberation. The price is homelessness. Interior exile.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/the-artistic-reward-for-refuting-the-received-national-tradition-is/) [C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/) > [Everyone in their car needs love.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/everyone-in-their-car-needs-love/) [C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/) > [I think a book-length poem stands about as good a chance as a collection of individual poems in reaching its field of ears. This…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/i-think-a-book-length-poem-stands-about-as-good-a-chance-as-a/) [C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/) > [“If religion, she also liked to say, is the opiate of the masses, fundamentalism is the amphetamine.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/if-religion-she-also-liked-to-say-is-the-opiate-of-the-masses/) [C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/) > [I am suggesting that the radical of poetry lies not in the resolution of doubts but in their proliferation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-d-wright/i-am-suggesting-that-the-radical-of-poetry-lies-not-in-the-resolution/) [C.D. Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/) [Explore all 19 C.D. Wright quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-d-wright/) ## More Art quotes > [True works of art contain their own theory and give us the measurement according to which we should judge them.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/true-works-of-art-contain-their-own-theory-and-give-us-the/) [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/) > [Before Noah, men having only water to drink, could not find the truth. 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You treat ideas like cats: you make them follow you.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ray-bradbury/that-s-the-great-secret-of-creativity-you-treat-ideas-like-cats-you/) [Ray Bradbury](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ray-bradbury/) > [“So, really," continued Jacob as if this were perfectly normal to expound on art in these circumstances, "when you think about it, the artists…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/justina-chen-headley/so-really-continued-jacob-as-if-this-were-perfectly-normal-to-expound/) [Justina Chen Headley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/justina-chen-headley/) > [“There are two options in art; either to adopt philosophical life by dissecting art, or to write your own philosophical life and claim it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/taf-teh/there-are-two-options-in-art-either-to-adopt-philosophical-life-by/) Taf Teh > [The house has to serve comfort. 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