“My sonnet asserts that the sonnet still lives. My epic, should such fortune befall me, asserts that the heroic narrative is not lost — that it is born again.”

—  James Fenton

Source: An Introduction to English Poetry (2002), Ch. 22: Poetic Drama and Opera (p. 125)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "My sonnet asserts that the sonnet still lives. My epic, should such fortune befall me, asserts that the heroic narrativ…" by James Fenton?
James Fenton photo
James Fenton 17
poet 1949

Related quotes

Giacomo Casanova photo

“When a sonnet is mediocre it is bad, for it should be sublime.”

Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice

History of My Life (trans. Trask 1967), 1997 reprint, v. 7, chapter 7, p. 143
Referenced

Richard Ashcroft photo

“Yes, there's love if you want it. Don't sound like no sonnet, my lord.”

Richard Ashcroft (1971) English singer-songwriter

Urban Hymns (1997)

Charles Lamb photo

“When my sonnet was rejected, I exclaimed, 'Damn the age; I will write for Antiquity!”

Charles Lamb (1775–1834) English essayist

Letter to Proctor (January 22, 1829), in Oxford Dictionary of Quotations by Subject (2000), p. 526

James Branch Cabell photo

“Cease from sonneting, my brothers; let us fashion songs from life.”

James Branch Cabell (1879–1958) American author

"Auctorial Induction"
The Certain Hour (1916)
Context: We are talking over telephones, as Shakespeare could not talk;
We are riding out in motor-cars where Homer had to walk;
And pictures Dante labored on of mediaeval Hell
The nearest cinematograph paints quicker, and as well. But ye copy, copy always; — and ye marvel when ye find
This new beauty, that new meaning, — while a model stands behind,
Waiting, young and fair as ever, till some singer turn and trace
Something of the deathless wonder of life lived in any place.
Hey, my masters, turn from piddling to the turmoil and the strife!
Cease from sonneting, my brothers; let us fashion songs from life.

George Herbert photo

“My meaning (dear Mother) is in these sonnets, to declare my resolution to be, that my poor abilities in poetry, shall be all and ever consecrated to God's glory.”

George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh-born English poet, orator and Anglican priest

Letter to His Mother (1609)

Rafael Sabatini photo

“It was heroic!"
"Heroic, is it? Bedad, it's epic! Ye begin to perceive the breadth and depth of my genius.”

Source: Captain Blood (1922), Ch. IX: "The Rebels-Convict"

Oscar Wilde photo

“Your days are your sonnets.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
Robert Browning photo

“Rafael made a century of sonnets.”

Robert Browning (1812–1889) English poet and playwright of the Victorian Era

Stanza ii.
One Word More (1855)

Related topics