James Fenton Quotes
born 1949 England
James Martin Fenton (born 25 April 1949) is an English poet, journalist and literary critic. Like his mentor, W.
- England
- Critics
- Journalists
- Poets
Random James Fenton quote
10 quotes
The writing of a poem is like a child throwing stones into a mineshaft. You compose first, then you listen for the reverberation.
Windbags can be right. Aphorists can be wrong. It is a tough world.
Imitation, if it is not forgery, is a fine thing. It stems from a generous impulse, and a realistic sense of what can and cannot be done.
The composer does not want the self-sufficiency of a richly complex text: he or she wants to feel that the text is something in need of musical setting.
An Introduction to English Poetry (2002)
My sonnet asserts that the sonnet still lives. My epic, should such fortune befall me, asserts that the heroic narrative is not lost — that it is born again.
An Introduction to English Poetry (2002)
Poetry carries its history within it, and it is oral in its origins, its transmission was oral.
Yes
You have come upon the fabled lands where myths
Go when they die,
But some, especially the Brummagem capitalist
Juju, have arrived prematurely.
It normally happens that if you put two words together, or two syllables together, one of them will attract more weight, more emphasis, than the other. In other words, most so-called spondees can be read as either iambs or trochees.
An Introduction to English Poetry (2002)
Poetry is not a metrical exercise.
It is not what they built. It is what they knocked down.
It is not the houses. It is the spaces between the houses.
It is not the streets that exist. It is the streets that no longer exist.