John Hollander: Verse

John Hollander was American poet. Explore interesting quotes on verse.

John Hollander: 62 quotes0 likes

“Very few writers of verse can read their work to keep their listeners aware of the beauty of sense, that sense of beauty from the powerful, delicate ways in which sense is made by poetry.”

'Poetry' September 1995

“The study of rhetoric distiguishes between tropes, or figuresvof meaning such as metaphor and metonymy, and schemes, or surface patterns of words. Poetry is a matter of trope; and verse, of scheme or design.”

“Central also to reading verse aloud is the handling of enjambment,.. the interplay of line-end and sentence-flow.”

“I find free verse very, very difficult to write.”

“The blueprints of verse can be used to build things made of literal, or nonpoetic material, which is why most verse is not poetry.”

“You can teach the writing of verse.. like prose.. an instrument.. and the recognition of true poetry. The rest, writers must teach them selves.”

Interview with J D McCarthy 'The Art of Poetry' no 35 Fall 1985