A sentence is like a tune. A memorable sentence gives its emotion a melodic shape. You want to hear it again, say it–in a way, to hum it to yourself. You desire, if only in the sound studio of your imagination, to repeat the physical experience of that sentence. That craving, emotional and intellectual but beginning in the body with a certain gesture of sound, is near the heart of poetry. Robert Pinsky
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A sentence is like a tune. A memorable sentence gives its emotion a melodic shape. You want to hear it again, say it—in a way, to hum it to yourself. You desire, if only in the sound studio of your imagination, to repeat the physical experience of that sentence. That craving, emotional and intellectual but beginning in the body with a certain gesture of sound, is near the heart of poetry.

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More Quotes By Robert Pinsky
  1. A sentence is like a tune. A memorable sentence gives its emotion a melodic shape. You want to hear it again, say it–in a way, to hum it to yourself. You desire, if only in the sound studio of your imagination, to repeat the physical...
  2. From an essay on early reading by Robert Pinsky:My favorite reading for many years was the "Alice" books. The sentences had the same somber, drugged conviction as Sir John Tenniel's illustrations, an inexplicable, shadowy dignity that reminded me of the portraits and symbols engraved on...
  3. This is one of the great human mysteries: why do works of art about bad things such as loss and deprivation make us feel good?
  4. I delight sometimes in saying to - as when I'm a teacher, I love saying, 'This is really important, so don't write it down.' To me, what you retain is a very important filter.
  5. I think art is not an ornament or refinement at the fringes of human intelligence, I think it's at the center. It's at the core.
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