I am not at all clear what free verse is anymore. That's one of the things you learn not to know.

Quote by Howard Nemerov

Topics: Howard Nemerov Quotes

History is one of those marvelous and necessary illusions we have to deal with. It's...

History is one of those marvelous and necessary illusions we have to deal with. It's...

The historian is terribly responsible to what he can discern are the facts of the...

The historian is terribly responsible to what he can discern are the facts of the...

When I was starting to write, the great influence was T.S. Eliot and after that...

When I was starting to write, the great influence was T.S. Eliot and after that...

Language cares.

Language cares.

I would talk in iambic pentameter if it were easier.

I would talk in iambic pentameter if it were easier.

A chronicle is very different from history proper.

A chronicle is very different from history proper.

Once in awhile you have a thought, and you rhyme it.

Once in awhile you have a thought, and you rhyme it.

I think there's one thing which distinguishes our art - we don't consider. We don't...

I think there's one thing which distinguishes our art - we don't consider. We don't...

When you write it doesn't occur to you that somebody could think different from what...

When you write it doesn't occur to you that somebody could think different from what...

When Robert Frost was alive, I was known as the other new England poet, which...

When Robert Frost was alive, I was known as the other new England poet, which...

I do insist on making what I hope is sense so there's always a coherent...

I do insist on making what I hope is sense so there's always a coherent...

I never abandoned either forms or freedom. I imagine that most of what could be...

I never abandoned either forms or freedom. I imagine that most of what could be...

I've never read a political poem that's accomplished anything. Poetry makes things happen, but rarely...

I've never read a political poem that's accomplished anything. Poetry makes things happen, but rarely...

Write what you know. That should leave you with a lot of free time.

Write what you know. That should leave you with a lot of free time.

I have a plot, but not much happens.

I have a plot, but not much happens.

We're not in love with Literature all the time - especially when you have to...

We're not in love with Literature all the time - especially when you have to...

For a Jewish Puritan of the middle class, the novel is serious, the novel is...

For a Jewish Puritan of the middle class, the novel is serious, the novel is...

It may be said that poems are in one way like icebergs: only about a...

It may be said that poems are in one way like icebergs: only about a...

Shakespeare tells the same stories over and over in so many guises that it takes...

Shakespeare tells the same stories over and over in so many guises that it takes...

The spirit world doesn't admit to communicating with me, so it's fairly even.

The spirit world doesn't admit to communicating with me, so it's fairly even.