“Compose aloud: poetry is a sound.”
I SUGGEST Advice to Young Poets
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Basil Bunting 11
Poet 1900–1985Related quotes

“Truly fine poetry must be read aloud.”
"The Divine Comedy" (1977)
Context: Truly fine poetry must be read aloud. A good poem does not allow itself to be read in a low voice or silently. If we can read it silently, it is not a valid poem: a poem demands pronunciation. Poetry always remembers that it was an oral art before it was a written art. It remembers that it was first song.
'A Conversation with John Hollander' (by email) by Paul Devlin vol 1 St. John's University Humanities Review April 2003

“Verse is a set of specially related sounds, repeated aloud.”
Preface to The Science of English Verse 1880
“Poetry is what looks like poetry, what sounds like poetry. It is metrical composition.”
'Poetry, Structure and Tradition' Dec 31 1939
General
"The Poet With His Face in His Hands"
New and Selected Poems, Volume 2 (2005)
“Sound poetry is a fusion of music and literature.”
The Origin of Happenings (1976)
Variant: Concrete poetry is a fusion of visual art and poetry.

“I am composed of contradictions, which is why poetry is a better form for me than philosophy”