James Fenton Quotes - Page 2

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The composer does not want the self-sufficiency of a richly complex text: he or she wants to feel that the text is something in need of musical setting.

James Fenton

Self, Musical, Doe

"An Introduction to English Poetry". Book by James Fenton, 2002.

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One does not become a guru by accident.

James Fenton

Doe, Guru, Accidents

"A Master Class in Space Photography with NASA Astronaut Donald Pettit". Interview with Mia Tramz, time.com. July 17, 2014.

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It normally happens that if you put two words together, or two syllables together, one of them will attract more weight, more emphasis, than the other. In other words, most so-called spondees can be read as either iambs or trochees.

James Fenton

Two, Together, Weight

"An Introduction to English Poetry". Book by James Fenton, 2002.

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Composers need words, but they do not necessarily need poetry. The Russian composer, Aleksandr Mossolov, who chose texts from newspaper small ads, had a good point to make. With revolutionary music, any text can be set to work.

James Fenton

Needs, Revolutionary, Newspapers

"Soul music" by James Fenton, www.theguardian.com. November 22, 2002.

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At four lines, with the quatrain, we reach the basic stanza form familiar from a whole range of English poetic practice. This is the length of the ballad stanza, the verse of a hymn, and innumerable other kinds of verse.

James Fenton

Hymns, Practice, Four

"Changing rooms" by James Fenton, www.theguardian.com. September 6, 2002.

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Among those today who believe that modern poetry must do without rhyme or metre, there is an assumption that the alternative to free verse is a crash course in villanelles, sestinas and other such fixed forms. But most... are rare in English poetry. Few poets have written a villanelle worth reading, or indeed regret not having done so.

James Fenton

Regret, Believe, Reading

"An Introduction to English Poetry". Book by James Fenton, 2002.

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Some of my educated Filipino friends were aspiring poets, but their aspirations were all in the direction of the United States. They had no desire to learn from the bardic tradition that continued in the barrios. Their ideal would have been to write something that would get them to Iowa, where they would study creative writing.

James Fenton

Writing, Iowa, Creative

"Where poetry and music divide" by James Fenton, www.theguardian.com. June 21, 2002.

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My sonnet asserts that the sonnet still lives. My epic, should such fortune befall me, asserts that the heroic narrative is not lost - that it is born again.

James Fenton

Epic, Narrative, Heroic

"An Introduction to English Poetry". Book by James Fenton, 2002.

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What happened to poetry in the twentieth century was that it began to be written for the page.

James Fenton

Pages, Century, Happened

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Modernism in other arts brought extreme difficulty. In poetry, the characteristic difficulty imported under the name of modernism was obscurity. But obscurity could just as easily be a quality of metrical as of free verse.

James Fenton

Art, Names, Quality

"Negative images" by James Fenton, www.theguardian.com. November 15, 2002.

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A glance at the history of European poetry is enough to inform us that rhyme itself is not indispensable. Latin poetry in the classical age had no use for it, and the kind of Latin poetry that does rhyme - as for instance the medieval Carmina Burana - tends to be somewhat crude stuff in comparison with the classical verse that doesn't.

James Fenton

Latin, Age, Doe

"It ain't necessarily so" by James Fenton, www.theguardian.com. October 18, 2002.

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The basic rhymes in English are masculine, which is to say that the last syllable of the line is stressed: "lane" rhymes with "pain", but it also rhymes with "urbane" since the last syllable of "urbane" is stressed. "Lane" does not rhyme with "methane".

James Fenton

Pain, Stressed, Doe

"Slave to the rhythm" by James Fenton, www.theguardian.com. October 26, 2002.

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The voice is raised, and that is where poetry begins. And even today, in the prolonged aftermath of modernism, in places where "open form" or free verse is the orthodoxy, you will find a memory of that raising of the voice in the term "heightened speech".

James Fenton

Memories, Voice, Aftermath

"Where poetry and music divide" by James Fenton, www.theguardian.com. June 21, 2002.

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When we study Shakespeare on the page, for academic purposes, we may require all kinds of help. Generally, we read him in modern spelling and with modern punctuation, and with notes. But any poetry that is performed - from song lyric to tragic speech - must make its point, as it were, without reference back.

James Fenton

Song, Purpose, May

James Fenton (2003). “An Introduction to English Poetry”, p.10, Penguin UK

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The Mormon mission to Africa, as to other dark-skinned parts of the world, was for a long time hobbled by the racism of the movement's scripture.

James Fenton

Dark, Long, Racism

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Hearing that the same men who brought us 'South Park' were mounting a musical to be called 'The Book of Mormon,' we were tempted to turn away, as from an inevitable massacre.

James Fenton

Book, Men, Musical

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Those who actually set out to see the fall of a city or those who choose to go to a front line, are obviously asking themselves to what extent they are cowards. But the tests they set themselves - there is a dead body, can you bear to look at it? - are nothing in comparison with the tests that are sprung on them. It is not the obvious tests that matter (do you go to pieces in a mortar attack?) but the unexpected ones (here is a man on the run, seeking your help - can you face him honestly?).

James Fenton

Running, War, Fall

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English poetry begins whenever we decide to say the modern English language begins, and it extends as far as we decide to say that the English language extends.

James Fenton

Language, Modern, English Poetry

2002 An Introduction to English Poetry.

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Nobody really knows whether they are a poet. I knew I was interested from the age of 15.

James Fenton

Age, Poet, Knows

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I've not been a prolific poet, and it always seemed to me to be a bad idea to feel that you had to produce in order to get... credits. Production of a collection of poems every three years or every five years, or whatever, looks good, on paper. But it might not be good; it might be writing on a kind of automatic pilot.

James Fenton

Writing, Order, Years

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A cabaret song has got to be written - for the middle voice, ideally - because you've got to hear the wit of the words. And a cabaret song gives the singer room to act, more even than an opera singer.

James Fenton

Song, Voice, Giving

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When Mr Ackroyd says that in the 18th century, stranglers bit off the noses of their victims, I feel that he probably knows what he is talking about. I just wish he hadn't told me.

James Fenton

Talking, Wish, Noses

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Considering the wealth of poetic drama that has come down to us from the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, it is surprising that so little of any value has been added since.

James Fenton

Drama, Littles, Poetic

"A licence for drama" by James Fenton, www.theguardian.com. December 6, 2002.

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Born: April 25, 1949
Occupation: Poet
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