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I like rhyme because it is memorable, I like form because having to work to a pattern gives me original ideas.
Anne Stevenson
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Anne Stevenson
Age: 87 †
Born: 1933
Born: January 3
Died: 2020
Died: September 14
Literary Critic
Poet
Writer
Anne Katharine Stevenson
Work
Memorable
Like
Originals
Original
Patterns
Gives
Form
Rhyming
Ideas
Rhyme
Giving
Pattern
More quotes by Anne Stevenson
My earlier poems were sadder than my poems are today, perhaps because I wrote them in confusion or when I was unhappy. But I am not a melancholy person, quite the contrary, no one enjoys laughing more than I do.
Anne Stevenson
I work very hard on all my poems, but most of the work consists of trying not to sound as if I had worked. I try to make them sound as natural as possible, but within a quite strict form, which to my ears has a lot to do with musical rhythm and sound.
Anne Stevenson
Each word bears its weight, so you have to read my poems quite slowly.
Anne Stevenson
There comes a time when you have to trust your own judgment, when you must close your eyes and let your instinct rule you.
Anne Stevenson
There's no friend like someone who has known you since you were five.
Anne Stevenson
There is far too much literary criticism of the wrong kind. That is why I never could have survived as an academic.
Anne Stevenson
I don't like poetry that just slaps violent words on a canvas, as it were.
Anne Stevenson
A poem might be defined as thinking about feelings - about human feelings and frailties.
Anne Stevenson
I married a young Englishman in Cambridge in 1955 and have lived in Britain every since.
Anne Stevenson
The sea is as near as we come to another world.
Anne Stevenson
Yes, I do often write poems from the mind, but I hope I don't ignore feelings and emotions.
Anne Stevenson
I have always made my own rules, in poetry as in life - though I have tried of late to cooperate more with my family. I do, however, believe that without order or pattern poetry is useless.
Anne Stevenson
I dislike literary jargon and never use it. Criticism has only one function and that is to help readers read and understand literature. It is not a science, it is an aid to art.
Anne Stevenson
Blake has always been a favorite, the lyrics, not so much the prophetic books, but I suppose Yeats influenced me more as a young poet, and the American, Robert Frost.
Anne Stevenson
When everything is for 'fun' nothing is for the good.
Anne Stevenson
I did know Ted Hughes and I partly wrote the book to explain to myself and others the complexities of a marriage that was for six years wonderfully productive of poetry and then ended in tragedy.
Anne Stevenson
A hobbyhorse can be a tiring ride for nonenthusiasts.
Anne Stevenson
Sylvia Plath was just a month and a half older than I, and when she committed suicide I was only 30 - and very shocked and sorry. I never knew her personally.
Anne Stevenson
Poets should ignore most criticism and get on with making poetry.
Anne Stevenson
My soul, how will I recognize you if we meet?
Anne Stevenson
