“Poetry carries its history within it, and it is oral in its origins, its transmission was oral.”
An Introduction to English Poetry, Viking Penguin, London 2002 ISBN 0141004398
How to Read a Poem And Fall in Love with Poetry (1998)
“Poetry carries its history within it, and it is oral in its origins, its transmission was oral.”
An Introduction to English Poetry, Viking Penguin, London 2002 ISBN 0141004398
"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.
Quoted in 'Venerable Poets :Words to Pop Music beat 'by Cynthia Wolfe Boyton.
9-10
Essays, Can Poetry Matter? (1991), Poetry as Enchantment (2015)
Opening Spaces: An Anthology of Contemporary African Women's Writing, August 11, 2008 https://www.amazon.com/Opening-Spaces-Anthology-Contemporary-African/dp/0435910108
Minerva's Owl (1947), an address to the Royal Society of Canada, published in The Bias of Communication (1951) p. 10.
The Bias of Communication (1951)
Elements of Indian Art (2002)
On reworking the Ramayana in “An Interview With Daljit Nagra” https://www.thebubble.org.uk/culture/literature/an-interview-with-daljit-nagra/ in The Bubble (2014 Sept 17)