In fiction, the characters have their own lives. They may start as a gloss on the author’s life, but they move on from there. In poetry, especially confessional poetry but in other poetry as well, the poet is not writing characters so much as emotional truth wrapped in metaphor. Bam! Pow! A shot to the gut. Jane Yolen
About This Quote

Every poet who’s ever lived has said that poetry is something that is written or spoken that it isn’t really about anything. Poets are usually more concerned with the truth of their own experiences than about the truth of someone else’s experiences. They are writing about their lives, not writing about some other character’s life. Poets are not creating stories for fictional characters, they are creating truths for themselves.

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