“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

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Robert Frost 265

American poet 1874–1963

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

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

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

“A poem…begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness. It is a reaching-out toward expression; an effort to find fulfillment. A complete poem is one where an emotion finds the thought and the thought finds the words.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

Letter to Louis Untermeyer (1 January 1916)
1910s

“I thought I'd begin by reading a poem by Shakespeare, but then I thought, why should I? He never reads any of mine.”

Spike Milligan (1918–2002) British-Irish comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor

Spike Milligan with Jeremy Taylor Live at Cambridge University. Recorded at Cambridge University on December 2, 1973, this was previously released as a double LP, and later re-issued as a 2 CD set. Milligan used variations on the Shakespear line throughout his later life.

“Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin to live.”

Henry Van Dyke (1852–1933) American diplomat

“Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin to live. ”

Генри Ван-Дайк (1852–1933)

“Life is lumpy. And a lump in the oatmeal, a lump in the throat, and a lump in a breast are not the same lump. One should learn the difference.”

Robert Fulghum (1937) American writer

Source: Uh-oh - Some Observations From Both Sides Of The Refrigerator Door

“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…”

Jericho Brown (1976) American writer

On how poems might be structured around a political theme in “JERICHO BROWN in conversation with MICHAEL DUMANIS” http://www.benningtonreview.org/jericho-brown-interview in Bennington Review (2018 Oct 27)

“There has to be an end somewhere, he thought. Each thing has to end, or there will never be any room for beginnings.”

Algis Budrys (1931–2008) American writer

The End of Summer, p. 32
The Unexpected Dimension (1960)

“The morning I got up to begin this book I coughed. Something was coming out of my throat: it was strangling me.”

Anaïs Nin book House of Incest

House of Incest (1936)
Context: The morning I got up to begin this book I coughed. Something was coming out of my throat: it was strangling me. I broke the thread which held it and yanked it out. I went back to bed and said: I have just spat out my heart.

“A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

“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.”

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Robert Frost 265

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