American Poetry Quotes - Page 2

• American poetry has been part of a culture in conflict....We are a people tending toward democracy at the level of hope; at another level, the economy of the nation, the empire of business within the republic, both include in their basic premise the idea of perpetual warfare

  Muriel Rukeyser

  Ideas, People, Democracy

  Muriel Rukeyser (2004). “Selected Poems”

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• For the past thirty years or so, much American poetry has been marked by an earnestness that rejects the comic. This has nothing to do with seriousness. The comic can be very serious. The trouble with the earnest is that it seeks to be commended. It seeks to be praised for its intention more than for what it is saying.

  Stephen Dobyns

  Past, Years, Serious

  Stephen Dobyns (2011). “Next Word, Better Word: The Craft of Writing Poetry”, p.59, Macmillan

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• I exaggerate. I oversimplify. I generalize. But there’s no cynicism here. American poetry is a mess. Long live American poetry.

  David Biespiel

  Long, Cynicism, Mess

  "David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: The Cynicism Of Mark Edmundson, Or Poetry Is Still Not Dead" by David Biespiel, therumpus.net. June 21, 2013.

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• American poetry, like American painting, is always personal with an emphasis on the individuality of the poet.

  Diane Wakoski

  Individuality, Literature, Painting

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• Distinctly American poetry is usually written in the context of one's geographic landscape, sometimes out of one's cultural myths, and often with reference to gender and race or ethnic origins.

  Diane Wakoski

  Race, Landscape, Sometimes

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• I think there's no excuse for the American poetry reader not knowing a good deal about what is going on in the rest of the world.

  James Laughlin

  Thinking, Knowing, World

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• American poetry is a mess. Long live American poetry.

  David Biespiel

  Long, Mess, Poetry Is

  "David Biespiel's poetry wire: the cynicism of Mark Edmundson, or poetry is still not dead". therumpus.net. June 21, 2013.

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• The Astonishment Tapes will now take its place within the growing field of international research about postwar American poetry's important contribution to world literature. Miriam Nichols has once again done exceptional scholarship.

  Peter Gizzi

  Important, Astonishment, Fields

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• I don't think the creative writing industry has helped American poetry.

  Robert Morgan

  Writing, Thinking, Creative

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