Quotes by A. R. Ammons

A. R. Ammons

American poet

Lived from: 1926 - 2001

Category: Poets (Contemporary)

Born: 18 february 1926 Died: 18 february 2001

Quotes 1 till 20 of 26.

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  • A poem generated by its own laws may be unrealized and bad in terms of so-called objective principles of taste, judgement, deduction.
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  • Anything looked at closely becomes wonderful.
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  • 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.
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  • Definition, rationality, and structure are ways of seeing, but they become prisons when they blank out other ways of seeing.
    Set in motion: essays, interviews, and dialogues (1996 edition), Univ of Michigan Pr
    ― A. R. Ammons
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  • Each poem in becoming generates the laws by which it is generated: extensions of the laws to other poems never completely take.
    Set in motion: essays, interviews, and dialogues (1996)
    ― A. R. Ammons
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  • Even if you walk exactly the same route each time - as with a sonnet - the events along the route cannot be imagined to be the same from day to day, as the poet's health, sight, his anticipations, moods, fears, thoughts cannot be the same.
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  • Everything is discursive opinion instead of direct experience.
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  • 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
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  • I am grateful for - though I can't keep up with - the flood of articles, theses, and textbooks that mean to share insight concerning the nature of poetry.
    Set in motion: essays, interviews, and dialogues (1996 edition), Univ of Michigan Pr
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  • I can't tell you where a poem comes from, what it is, or what it is for: nor can any other man. The reason I can't tell you is that the purpose of a poem is to go past telling, to be recognised by burning.
    ― A. R. Ammons
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  • 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
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  • 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.
    Set in motion: essays, interviews, and dialogues (1996)
    ― A. R. Ammons
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  • 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
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  • If the greatest god is the stillness all the motions add up to, then we must ineluctably be included.
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  • 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.'
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  • In nature there are few sharp lines.
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  • Is it not careless to become too local when there are four hundred billion stars in our galaxy alone.
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  • Once every five hundred years or so, a summary statement about poetry comes along that we can't imagine ourselves living without.
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  • Only silence perfects silence.
    ― A. R. Ammons
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  • Poetry leads us to the unstructured sources of our beings, to the unknown, and returns us to our rational, structured selves refreshed.
    ― A. R. Ammons
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What are the most famous quotes from A. R. Ammons?

The two most famous quotes from A. R. Ammons are:

  • "A poem generated by its own laws may be unrealized and bad in terms of so-called objective principles of taste, judgement, deduction."
  • "Anything looked at closely becomes wonderful."

When did A. R. Ammons live?

A. R. Ammons was born in 1926 and died in the year 2001.