“The rhythm of a poem ceases the moment the feeling loses its intensity.”

—  Herbert Read

What is a Poem - Endword - Selected Poems (1926)

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 "The rhythm of a poem ceases the moment the feeling loses its intensity." by Herbert Read?
Herbert Read photo
Herbert Read 42
English anarchist, poet, and critic of literature and art 1893–1968

Related quotes

Robert Pinsky photo

“No aspect of a poem is more singular, more unique, than its rhythm.”

Robert Pinsky (1940) American poet, editor, literary critic, academic.

'The Sounds of Poetry' Farrar,Strauss & Giroux 1998
The Sounds of Poetry 1998

Michael Longley photo

“A certain ambiguity of rhythm is one of the beauties of a poem”

Anne Ridler (1912–2001) English poet, editor

The Anatomy of Poetry, Marjoie Boulton, Routledge & Kegan, London 1953.

Richard Wright photo

“I revise short poems sometimes for years, whereas, since there is no getting lost in the long poem, I engage whatever comes up in the moment and link it with its moment.”

A.R. Ammons (1926–2001) American poet

Paris Review interview (1996)
Context: In the long poem, if there is a single governing image at the center, then anything can fit around it, meanwhile allowing for a lot of fragmentation and discontinuity on the periphery. Short poems, for me, are coherences, single instances on the periphery of a nonspecified center. I revise short poems sometimes for years, whereas, since there is no getting lost in the long poem, I engage whatever comes up in the moment and link it with its moment.

“The poem, a harmonious flow of nuances, demands a musical rhythm, Vers libre.”

F. S. Flint (1885–1960) English Imagist poet

Contemporary French Poetry, The Poetry Review, 1914

Emil M. Cioran photo

Related topics