“A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.”

— Robert Frost

Variant: A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.

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Robert Frost 265

American poet 1874–1963

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“A poem is never a put-up job, so to speak. It begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness. It is never a thought to begin with.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

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“What happens at the beginning of your poem has to—because it’s a poem—be transformed by the end of your poem. So if the triggering moment for the beginning of your poem is a known political moment, I am fine with that, that’s great. But as I’m reading, I expect it to change because that was just the trigger…”

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