“But writing poems and letters doesn't seem to do much good.”

— Sylvia Plath

Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "But writing poems and letters doesn't seem to do much good." by Sylvia Plath?

Sylvia Plath 342

American poet, novelist and short story writer 1932–1963

Related quotes

“Most people are much better at saying things in letters than in conversation, and some people can write artistic, inventive letters, but when they try a poem or story or novel they become pretentious.”

Charles Bukowski book Women

Source: Women

“To write good poems is the secret of brevity.”

Dejan Stojanovic (1959) poet, writer, and businessman

Simplicity http://www.poetrysoup.com/famous/poem/21390/Simplicity
From the poems written in English

“The art of biography seems to have fallen on evil times in England. … With us, the most delicate and humane of all the branches of the art of writing has been relegated to the journeymen of letters; we do not reflect that it is perhaps as difficult to write a good life as to live one.”

Lytton Strachey book Eminent Victorians

Preface.
Eminent Victorians (1918)

“Generally, people who are good at writing letters have no need to write letters. They've got plenty of life to lead inside their own context.”

Haruki Murakami book A Wild Sheep Chase

Source: A Wild Sheep Chase: A Novel (1982), Chapter 13, The Rat's First Letter

“We do not write poems with ideas, but with words.”

Stéphane Mallarmé (1842–1898) French Symbolist poet

Ce n'est pas avec des idées qu'on fait des vers, c'est avec des mots.
A remark reported in Psychologie de l'art (1927) by Henri Delacroix, p. 93; as translated in Literary Impressionism (1973), Maria Elisabeth Kronegger, p. 77.
Observations

“Letter writing is the only device combining solitude with good company.”

George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement

“The poems I am writing at the moment will be much closer to your present way of thinking. I am trying to renew poetic style, but within a classical framework. On the other hand, I don't want to lapse into imitating others. Letter to Picasso 1918”

Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918) French poet

“No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.”

Booker T. Washington book Up from Slavery

Chapter XIV: The Atlanta Exposition Address http://books.google.com/books?id=xN45ZsUMgKEC&q=%22No+race+can+prosper+till+it+learns+that+there+is+as+much+dignity+in+tilling+a+field+as+in+writing+a+poem+It+is+at+the+bottom+of+life+we+must+begin+and+not+at+the+top%22&pg=PA220#v=onepage
1900s, Up From Slavery (1901)
Context: No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top.

“I think Miss Moore was right to cut “The Steeple-Jack” — the poem seems plainer and clearer in its shortened state — but she has cut too much… The reader may feel like saying, “Let her do as she pleases with the poem; it’s hers, isn’t it?” No; it’s much too good a poem for that, it long ago became everybody’s, and we can protest just as we could if Donatello cut off David’s left leg.”

Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) poet, critic, novelist, essayist

“Her Shield”, p. 177
Poetry and the Age (1953)

“I prefer the absurdity of writing poems
to the absurdity of not writing poems.”

Wisława Szymborska (1923–2012) Polish writer

Source: Nothing Twice: Selected Poems

“But writing poems and letters doesn't seem to do much good.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Sylvia Plath 342

Related quotes

Related topics