The lullaby is the spell whereby the mother attempts to transform herself back from an ogre to a saint. James Fenton More Quotes by James Fenton More Quotes From James Fenton 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 reading believe 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 poetic littles drama 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 four practice A really interesting and happy time was when I first went to Florence as a student and studied Italian. I was living in a pensione on an allowance of £40 a month, which was princely. I did a lot of work and enjoyed myself immensely. James Fenton happy-times italian interesting For poets today or in any age, the choice is not between freedom on the one hand and abstruse French forms on the other. The choice is between the nullity and vanity of our first efforts, and the developing of a sense of idiom, form, structure, metre, rhythm, line - all the fundamental characteristics of this verbal art. James Fenton vanity hands art There is no objection to the proposal: in order to learn to be a poet, I shall try to write a sonnet. But the thing you must try to write, when you do so, is a real sonnet, and not a practice sonnet. James Fenton real writing order 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 aftermath voice memories 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 stressed pain doe 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 iowa creative writing My feeling is that poetry will wither on the vine if you don't regularly come back to the simplest fundamentals of the poem: rhythm, rhyme, simple subjects - love, death, war. James Fenton simple feelings war Oh let us not be condemned for what we are. It is enough to account for what we do. James Fenton accounts enough One does not become a guru by accident. James Fenton accidents guru doe I prefer writing in the mornings, so to that extent I have a routine. I do reading and other things in the afternoon. James Fenton reading writing morning Nobody really knows whether they are a poet. I knew I was interested from the age of 15. James Fenton poet age knows I don't see that a single line can constitute a stanza, although it can constitute a whole poem. James Fenton single-line lines whole Great poetry does not have to be technically intricate. James Fenton great-poetry intricate doe At somewhere around 10 syllables, the English poetic line is at its most relaxed and manageable. James Fenton relaxed poetic lines One problem we face comes from the lack of any agreed sense of how we should be working to train ourselves to write poetry. James Fenton problem faces writing 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 newspapers revolutionary needs 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 racism dark long
