Stephen Burt Quotes & Sayings

Gunn would be an important figure-rewarding, delightful, accomplished, enduring-in the history of English-language poetry even were his life not as fascinating as it now seems; he would be an important figure in the history of gay writing and in the history of transatlantic literary relations even were his poetry not so good as it is. With his life as it was and his works as they are, he's an obvious candidate for a volume of retrospective and critical essays, and this one is first-rate. — Stephen Burt

To do a poem justice, explain what makes it unique; to get a poem noticed, explain what makes it typical. — Stephen Burt

Some poets marry a language; some have affairs with it; some treat it as a parent, some as a child, some as an equal, or as a friend. — Stephen Burt

One chance, One life. Make it or screw it up, it's your choice. Don't wait to long or your time will be up. — Stephen Burt

Powell belongs, in fact to the first generation of American poets who may have grown up without even a vestigial connection to the accentual-syllabic, rhyming English tradition - his inventive lines have this absence at their back. — Stephen Burt

In pursuing certain virtues - colorful local effects, personae and personality, juxtaposition, close calls with nonsense, uncertainty, critiques of ordinary language - the current crop of American poets necessarily give up on others. — Stephen Burt