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Quotes from An Introduction to English Poetry — James Fenton

born 1949 England

← All quotes by James Fenton

3 quotes

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)

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)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: James Fenton (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.