Remembering Poets
May 20, 2009 on 2:23 pm | In Poetry, Uncategorized | No CommentsI just recently finished Donald Hall’s Remembering Poets: Reminiscences and Opinions. I have not been a fan of Hall’s poetry. I do not find it bad. Just boring — which means bad by another name I guess. So I was surprised to find myself so drawn into this book of prose. Hall has had the fortune of going on a road trip with Dylan Thomas, having Robert Frost chase him down, witness T. S. Eliot’s courteous cutting insults, and encounter the ups and downs of Ezra Pound. The book is full of delightful insights (Thomas screaming for a particular tie, Eliot dissing Oscar Williams, etc.), but interestingly some of the more valuable aspects of the book are the reflections on the writing of poetry and poets.
Several of these quotes found real resonance with me, seemed to speak a truth. Here are a few quotes from the book that I found interesting:
But the great poets as they turn older look past the Muse…to pursue vision.
If we devote our lives to poetry, and take our lives seriously, we must praise and denounce with equal ferocity. People who follow the notion that praise is requisite…should sell cars.
For me, poetry is first of all sounds.
Poetry exists to extend human consciousness, to bring materials and insights from the unconscious dark into the light of language.
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