...few young poets [are] testing their poems against the ear. They're writing for the page, and the page, let me tell you, is a cold bed.

Stanley Kunitz
...few young poets [are] testing their poems against the ear....
...few young poets [are] testing their poems against the ear....
...few young poets [are] testing their poems against the ear....
...few young poets [are] testing their poems against the ear....
About This Quote

Few young poets are testing their poems against the ear. They're writing for the page, and the page, let me tell you, is a cold bed. This quote is a cautionary tale. It points out that one shouldn't be too quick to write a poem that was written to be read aloud.

In fact, if you write something with the intention of it being heard over an extended period of time, you should make sure the piece is as pleasing as possible to listen to. In order to do that, you need to test your work as best as possible against as many people as possible.

Some Similar Quotes
  1. Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake. - Wallace Stevens
  2. To be great, be whole; Exclude nothing, exaggerate nothing that is not you. Be whole in everything. Put all you are Into the smallest thing you do. So, in each lake, the moon shines with splendor Because it blooms up above. - Fernando Pessoa
  3. The poet's job is to put into words those feelings we all have that are so deep, so important, and yet so difficult to name, to tell the truth in such a beautiful way, that people cannot live without it. - Jane Kenyon
  4. Truth is a friendthat asks for loyaltyand acceptancethen it enters our heartsdissolving the boundariesfreeing us from lonliness - Nirmala
  5. Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky, We fell them down and turn them into paper, That we may record our emptiness. - Kahlil Gibran
More Quotes By Stanley Kunitz
  1. I can hardly wait for tomorrow, it means a new life for me each and every day.
  2. In my darkest night, when the moon was coveredand I roamed through wreckage, a nimbus-clouded voicedirected me:“ Live in the layers, not on the litter.” Though I lack the artto decipher it, no doubt the next chapterin my book of transformationsis already written. I am...
  3. Darling, do you rememberthe man you married? Touch me, remind me who I am.
  4. You must be careful not to deprive the poem of its wild origin.
  5. ...few young poets [are] testing their poems against the ear. They're writing for the page, and the page, let me tell you, is a cold bed.
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