“It is impossible for a poet to fashion the voice deliberately by contrivance and experiment; it could not be discovered or simulated through the cultivation of an eccentric diction or prosody, or by the employment of regional speech rhythms and patterns.”

A Proper Gentleman, 1977

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 "It is impossible for a poet to fashion the voice deliberately by contrivance and experiment; it could not be discovered…" by Vernon Scannell?
Vernon Scannell photo
Vernon Scannell 33
British boxer and poet 1922–2007

Related quotes

Herbert Read photo
Steven Brust photo

“Never to conform to fashion from fear of eccentricity, never to be eccentric from fear of conformity.”

Steven Brust (1955) American fantasy and science fiction author

Paths of the Dead (2002)
Context: To seek understanding before taking action, yet to trust my instincts when action is called for. Never to avoid danger from fear, never to seek out danger for its own sake. Never to conform to fashion from fear of eccentricity, never to be eccentric from fear of conformity.

Friedrich Nietzsche photo
Wallace Stevens photo

“The whole race is a poet that writes down
The eccentric propositions of its fate.”

Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) American poet

"Men Made Out of Words"
Transport to Summer (1947)
Context: Life consists
Of propositions about life. The human
Revery is a solitude in which
We compose these propositions, torn by dreams, By the terrible incantations of defeats
And by the fear that the defeats and the dreams are one. The whole race is a poet that writes down
The eccentric propositions of its fate.

Louise Glück photo

“The poem will not survive on content but through voice. By voice I mean the style of thought, for which a style of speech never convincingly substitutes.”

Louise Glück (1943–2023) American poet

Source: As quoted in "Poet Laureate: Louise Glück and the Public Face of a Private Artist" https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/04/opinion/editorial-observer-poet-laureate-louise-gluck-public-face-private-artist.html by Andrew Johnston, The New York Times (November 4, 2003)

“The rhythm of poetry and the routine of work are interdependent for some poets”

Dennis O'Driscoll (1954–2012) Irish poet, critic

'Sing for the Taxman-Poetry Magazine-Poetry Foundation May 1 2009
Poetry Quotes

John F. Kennedy photo

“The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived and dishonest — but the myth — persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Commencement address, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut (11 June 1962) http://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/speeches/detail/3370
1962
Context: The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived and dishonest — but the myth — persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

Marshall McLuhan photo

“TV is not good at covering single events. It needs a ritual, a rhythm, and a pattern…[TV] tends to fosters patterns rather than events.”

Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …

1970s, Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder (1976)

Jesse Helms photo

“To rob the Negro of his reputation of thinking through a problem in his own fashion is about the same as trying to pretend that he doesn't have a natural instinct for rhythm and for singing and dancing.”

Jesse Helms (1921–2008) American politician

1956) on criticism that a fictional character in his newspaper column was offensive cited The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/26/weekinreview/ideas-trends-the-quotations-of-chairman-helms-race-god-aids-and-more.html (2001
1950s

Related topics