“Good free verse is not at all easy to write, for there is no repetitive beat to lull the reader's critical faculty, much pattern and discipline is to be found in it, though the pattern of sounds and choice of exact words, gives it its beauty.”

Anatomy of Poetry (1953)

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 "Good free verse is not at all easy to write, for there is no repetitive beat to lull the reader's critical faculty, muc…" by Marjorie Boulton?
Marjorie Boulton photo
Marjorie Boulton 2
British writer 1924–2017

Related quotes

Marianne Moore photo

“I tend to write in patterned arrangement with rhymes.. I try to secure an effect of flowing continuity and the correspondence between verse and music.”

Marianne Moore (1887–1972) American poet and writer

Oxford Anthology of American Literature 1938
Prose

“We are all part of some cosmic pattern, and this pattern works toward good and not evil.”

Henry Kuttner (1915–1958) American author

Ardath in The Creature from Beyond Infinity (1940)
Short fiction
Context: We are all part of some cosmic pattern, and this pattern works toward good and not evil. It builds and does not destroy. So I shall go on in my search for a race where I can find kinship and happiness.

Friedrich Nietzsche photo

“Family love is messy, clinging, and of an annoying and repetitive pattern, like bad wallpaper.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
John Frusciante photo

“All around they is to
feel and watch you
they make patterns
to peel the sound”

John Frusciante (1970) American guitarist, singer, songwriter and record producer

Moments Have You
Lyrics, To Record Only Water for Ten Days (2000)

John Ogilby photo
Helen Keller photo
Haruki Murakami photo

“Time. Particles of darkness configured mysterious patterns on my retina. Patterns that degenerated without a sound, only to be replaced by new patterns. Darkness but darkness alone was shifting, like mercury in motionless space.”

Haruki Murakami (1949) Japanese author, novelist

Source: A Wild Sheep Chase: A Novel (1982), Chapter 38, And So Time Passes
Context: Time. Particles of darkness configured mysterious patterns on my retina. Patterns that degenerated without a sound, only to be replaced by new patterns. Darkness but darkness alone was shifting, like mercury in motionless space. I put a stop to my thoughts and let time pass. Let time carry me along. Carry me to where a new darkness was configuring yet newer patterns.

Robert A. Heinlein photo
Carl Sagan photo

“The search for patterns without critical analysis, and rigid skepticism without a search for patterns, are the antipodes of incomplete science. The effective pursuit of knowledge requires both functions.”

Carl Sagan (1934–1996) American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator

Source: The Dragons of Eden (1977), Chapter 7, “Lovers and Madmen” (p. 192)

Related topics