“Reading a poem aloud by someone who understands it, can be a crucial experience, but better yet is reading it aloud oneself.”
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John Hollander 31
American poet 1929–2013Related quotes
'A Conversation with John Hollander' (by email) by Paul Devlin vol 1 St. John's University Humanities Review April 2003

“In antiquity and the Middle Ages reading was necessarily reading aloud.”
Source: The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), p. 94

“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.
“There are chapters in every life which are seldom read, and certainly not aloud.”
Source: The Stone Diaries

"Tarquin of Cheapside"
Quoted, Tales of the Jazz Age (1922)