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

Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Sylvia Plath342

American poet, novelist and short story writer 1932–1963

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“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.”

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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”

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“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 <br class="br">1900s, Up From Slavery (1901) <br class="br">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
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“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.”

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