--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: The Correspondence-School Instructor Says…" description: "\"“The Correspondence-School Instructor Says Goodbye to His Poetry Students Goodbye, lady in Bangor, who sent me snapshots of yourself, after definitely ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b7c/galway-kinnell-14406_creative_the-correspondence-school-instructor-say_314988.png" --- # The Correspondence-School Instructor Says Goodbye to His… ![“The Correspondence-School Instructor Says Goodbye to His Poetry Students Goodbye, lady in Bangor, who sent me snapshots of yourself, after definitely hinting you were beautiful; goodbye, Miami Beach urologist, who enclosed plain brown envelopes for the return of your very “Clinical Sonnets”…” quote by Galway Kinnell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b7c/galway-kinnell-14406_creative_the-correspondence-school-instructor-say_314988.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b7c/galway-kinnell-14406_creative_the-correspondence-school-instructor-say_314988.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b7c/galway-kinnell-14406_creative_the-correspondence-school-instructor-say_314988.png) > ““The Correspondence-School Instructor Says Goodbye to His Poetry Students Goodbye, lady in Bangor, who sent me snapshots of yourself, after definitely hinting you were beautiful; goodbye, Miami Beach urologist, who enclosed plain brown envelopes for the return of your very “Clinical Sonnets”; goodbye, manufacturer of brassieres on the Coast, whose eclogues give the fullest treatment in literature yet to the sagging breast motif; goodbye, you in San Quentin, who wrote, “Being German my hero is Hitler,” instead of “Sincerely yours,” at the end of long, neat-scripted letters extolling the Pre-Raphaelites: I swear to you, it was just my way of cheering myself up, as I licked the stamped, self-addressed envelopes, the game I had of trying to guess which one of you, this time, had poisoned his glue. I did care. I did read each poem entire. I did say everything I thought in the mildest words I knew. And now, in this poem, or chopped prose, no better, I realize, than those troubled lines I kept sending back to you, I have to say I am relieved it is over: at the end I could feel only pity for that urge toward more life your poems kept smothering in words, the smell of which, days later, tingled in your nostrils as new, God-given impulses to write. Goodbye, you who are, for me, the postmarks again of imaginary towns—Xenia, Burnt Cabins, Hornell— their solitude given away in poems, only their loneliness kept. Galway Kinnell”” [Galway Kinnell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/galway-kinnell/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The speaker reflects on a long, weary correspondence with diverse students, feeling relief that the exhausting, emotionally draining exchange has ended. **In simple terms:** Relief after a draining, creative relationship. Key Takeaway Accept closure, cherish the learning. Themes art loneliness creative fatigue relief closure Mood melancholic reflective relieved Type poetic confessional When to use this quote - writing workshops - letter exchanges - creative mentorship - emotional exhaustion - final goodbyes Key Concepts Correspondence poetry emotional labor Questions to Reflect On - What did the speaker learn about boundaries? - How can creators protect themselves from burnout? 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Let our scars fall in love.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/galway-kinnell/never-mind-the-self-is-the-least-of-it-let-our-scars-fall-in-love/) [Galway Kinnell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/galway-kinnell/) > [That's the way it is with poetry: When it is incomprehensible it seems profound, and when you understand it, it is only ridiculous.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/galway-kinnell/that-s-the-way-it-is-with-poetry-when-it-is-incomprehensible-it-seems/) [Galway Kinnell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/galway-kinnell/) > [Little sleep's-head sprouting hair in the moonlight, when I come back we will go out together, we will walk out together among, the ten…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/galway-kinnell/little-sleep-s-head-sprouting-hair-in-the-moonlight-when-i-come-back/) [Galway Kinnell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/galway-kinnell/) > [“When a group of people get up from a table, the table doesn’t know which way any of them will go.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/galway-kinnell/when-a-group-of-people-get-up-from-a-table-the-table-doesn-t-know/) [Galway Kinnell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/galway-kinnell/) [Explore all 46 Galway Kinnell quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/galway-kinnell/) ## More Creative quotes > [An artist's creative energy is ephemeral as a flower. 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I did care. I did read each poem entire. I did say everything I thought in the mildest words I knew. And now, in this poem, or chopped prose, no better, I realize, than those troubled lines I kept sending back to you, I have to say I am relieved it is over: at the end I could feel only pity for that urge toward more life your poems kept smothering in words, the smell of which, days later, tingled in your nostrils as new, God-given impulses to write. Goodbye, you who are, for me, the postmarks again of imaginary towns—Xenia, Burnt Cabins, Hornell— their solitude given away in poems, only their loneliness kept. Galway Kinnell”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Galway Kinnell" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/galway-kinnell/the-correspondence-school-instructor-says-goodbye-to-his-poetry/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Creative" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/galway-kinnell/the-correspondence-school-instructor-says-goodbye-to-his-poetry/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b7c/galway-kinnell-14406_creative_the-correspondence-school-instructor-say_314988.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b7c/galway-kinnell-14406_creative_the-correspondence-school-instructor-say_314988.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b7c/galway-kinnell-14406_creative_the-correspondence-school-instructor-say_314988.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The Correspondence-School Instructor Says Goodbye to His Poetry Students Goodbye, lady in Bangor, who sent…” — Galway Kinnell", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Galway Kinnell", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/galway-kinnell/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“The Correspondence-School Instructor Says Goodbye to...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/galway-kinnell/the-correspondence-school-instructor-says-goodbye-to-his-poetry/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/galway-kinnell/the-correspondence-school-instructor-says-goodbye-to-his-poetry/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```