Quote

I married a young Englishman in Cambridge in 1955 and have lived in Britain every since.

Anne Stevenson

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Anne Stevenson
Age: 87 †
Born: 1933
Born: January 3
Died: 2020
Died: September 14
Literary Critic
Poet
Writer
Anne Katharine Stevenson
Britain
Lived
Married
Since
Young
Every
Englishman
Cambridge
Englishmen

More quotes by Anne Stevenson

Image
I'm not really quiet or shy. Ask any of my friends! But I always ground my poetry in life itself. Poetry is an art of language, though, so I am always aware of every word's meaning, or multiple meanings.
Anne Stevenson
Image
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
Image
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
Image
Poets should ignore most criticism and get on with making poetry.
Anne Stevenson
Image
I think a poet, like a painter, should be a craftsperson.
Anne Stevenson
Image
There is far too much literary criticism of the wrong kind. That is why I never could have survived as an academic.
Anne Stevenson
Image
A poem might be defined as thinking about feelings - about human feelings and frailties.
Anne Stevenson
Image
Each word bears its weight, so you have to read my poems quite slowly.
Anne Stevenson
Image
Yes, I do often write poems from the mind, but I hope I don't ignore feelings and emotions.
Anne Stevenson
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
I play with language a great deal in my poems, and I enjoy that. I try to condense language, that is, I try to express complicated but I hope real emotions as simply as possible. But that doesn't mean the poems are simple, just that they are as truthful as I can make them.
Anne Stevenson
Image
When everything is for 'fun' nothing is for the good.
Anne Stevenson
Image
I remain loyal to Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert in music and to Shakespeare and Jane Austen in literature.
Anne Stevenson
Image
A hobbyhorse can be a tiring ride for nonenthusiasts.
Anne Stevenson
Image
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
Image
The sea is as near as we come to another world.
Anne Stevenson
Image
Blackbirds are the cellos of the deep farms.
Anne Stevenson
Image
Mind led body to the edge of the precipice. They stared in desire at the naked abyss. If you love me, said mind, take that step into silence. If you love me, said body, turn and exist.
Anne Stevenson