"Answers to Questions," from Mid-Century American Poets, edited by John Ciardi, 1950 [p. 171]
Kipling, Auden & Co: Essays and Reviews 1935-1964 (1980)
“When a poet is being a poet — that is, when he is writing or thinking about writing — he cannot be concerned with anything but the making of a poem.”
National Book Award Acceptance Speech (1957)
Context: When a poet is being a poet — that is, when he is writing or thinking about writing — he cannot be concerned with anything but the making of a poem. If the poem is to turn out well, the poet cannot have thought of whether it will be saleable, or of what its effect on the world should be; he cannot think of whether it will bring him honor, or advance a cause, or comfort someone in sorrow. All such considerations, whether silly or generous, would be merely intrusive; for, psychologically speaking, the end of writing is the poem itself.
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Richard Wilbur 24
American poet 1921–2017Related quotes
“…whether they write poems or don’t write poems, poets are best.”
“Recent Poetry”, p. 227
Kipling, Auden & Co: Essays and Reviews 1935-1964 (1980)
“The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens”, p. 66
The Third Book of Criticism (1969)

"Quotes", The Educated Imagination (1963), Talk 3: Giants in Time
“We all write poems; it is simply that poets are the ones who write in words.”
Source: The French Lieutenant's Woman
“The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens”, p. 65
The Third Book of Criticism (1969)
“Fifty Years of American Poetry”, pp. 327–328
The Third Book of Criticism (1969)
Quote from a 1962 essay by Andre; as quoted in ' Objects Are What We Aren't' https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/02/26/objects-are-what-we-arent/, by Andy Battaglia; The Parish Review, February 26, 2015

“The distinction between a major and minor poet is the ability to write a long poem successfully.”
Form in Modern Poetry(1932)

“She is a sensitive poet who, unfortunately, cannot write.”
Charles Dickens, Jewish Virtual Library http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/AMenken.html
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