Quote

Probably all the attention to poetry results in some value, though the attention is more often directed to lesser than to greater values

A. R. Ammons

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

A. R. Ammons
Age: 75 †
Born: 1926
Born: February 18
Died: 2001
Died: February 26
Poet
University Teacher
Writer
Whiteville
North Carolina
A.R. Ammons
A R Ammons
AR Ammons
Value
Results
Probably
Greater
Though
Attention
Lesser
Values
Directed
Often
Poetry

More quotes by A. R. Ammons

Image
Each poem in becoming generates the laws by which it is generated: extensions of the laws to other poems never completely take.
A. R. Ammons
Image
What destruction have I been blessed by?
A. R. Ammons
Image
The walk liberating, I was released from forms, from the perpendiculars, straight lines, blocks, boxes, binds of thought into the hues, shadings, rises, flowing bends and blends of sight.
A. R. Ammons
Image
I take the walk to be the externalization of an interior seeking so that the analogy is first of all between the external and the internal.
A. R. Ammons
Image
Besides the actual reading in class of many poems, I would suggest you do two things: first, while teaching everything you can and keeping free of it, teach that poetry is a mode of discourse that differs from logical exposition
A. R. Ammons
Image
If a poem is each time new, then it is necessarily an act of discovery, a chance taken, a chance that may lead to fulfillment or disaster
A. R. Ammons
Image
Though I have looked everywhere / I can find nothing lowly / in the universe.
A. R. Ammons
Image
Things go away to return, brightened for the passage
A. R. Ammons
Image
In nature there are few sharp lines
A. R. Ammons
Image
It's not a love of poetry readings that attracts those who do come to them but theater.
A. R. Ammons
Image
I must stress here the point that I appreciate clarity, order, meaning, structure, rationality: they are necessary to whatever provisional stability we have, and they can be the agents of gradual and successful change.
A. R. Ammons
Image
I have a life that did not become, that turned aside and stopped, astonished
A. R. Ammons
Image
The poet exposes himself to the risk. All that has been said about poetry, all that he has learned about poetry, is only a partial assurance.
A. R. Ammons
Image
I have reached no conclusions, have erected no boundaries, shutting out and shutting in, separating inside from outside: I have drawn no lines
A. R. Ammons
Image
Anything looked at closely becomes wonderful.
A. R. Ammons
Image
Everything is discursive opinion instead of direct experience.
A. R. Ammons
Image
Once every five hundred years or so, a summary statement about poetry comes along that we can't imagine ourselves living without
A. R. Ammons
Image
To be saved is here, local and mortal
A. R. Ammons
Image
For though we often need to be restored to the small, concrete, limited, and certain, we as often need to be reminded of the large, vague, unlimited, unknown
A. R. Ammons
Image
If we ask a vague question, such as, 'What is poetry?' we expect a vague answer, such as, 'Poetry is the music of words,' or 'Poetry is the linguistic correction of disorder.'
A. R. Ammons