Rita Dove Quotes

Powerful Rita Dove for Daily Growth

About Rita Dove

Rita Dove, born on August 28, 1952, in Akron, Ohio, is a distinguished American poet whose work reflects her diverse background and experiences. She was raised by her mother, a school teacher, and grandmother, after her parents' divorce. This upbringing by strong women significantly influenced Dove's life and her writing. Dove attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where she majored in English and received a BA degree in 1973. She continued her education at the University of Iowa, earning an MFA in 1977. Her time at the Iowa Writers' Workshop was instrumental in honing her poetic skills under the guidance of renowned poets such as Donald Justice and Robert Penn Warren. In 1980, Dove published her first book of poetry, "The Yellow House on the Corner," which garnered critical acclaim. This was followed by several other collections, including "Mother Love" (1983), "Thomas and Beulah" (1986), for which she won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and "Grace Notes" (1989). In addition to her poetry, Dove has written operas, essays, short stories, and a novel, "The Red Tent Queen," in 1997. From 1993 to 2004, she served as the Poet Laureate of the United States and consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress. Throughout her career, Dove's work has been marked by its emotional depth, rich imagery, and exploration of cultural identity. Her poems often draw from personal experiences, history, and mythology, creating a unique blend that resonates with readers worldwide. Dove continues to be an influential figure in American literature and poetry.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"Art is a means of life—it's not just about making objects."

Rita Dove's quote suggests that art is more than just creating physical objects or works; it is a fundamental aspect of life itself. She posits that art has intrinsic value beyond the tangible pieces it produces, enriching our lives in deeper, less easily definable ways. Art, in this view, serves as an essential means of human expression and connection.

"Poetry is language in search of the ultimate meaning."

Rita Dove's quote suggests that poetry is a creative exploration to uncover the profound essence or significance of existence, life experiences, emotions, and the human condition. It's a means for seeking wisdom, understanding, and enlightenment, and it allows us to appreciate the beauty and complexity of language in its pursuit of meaning.

"The poet's job is to name the unnameable and find the world again."

Rita Dove suggests that a poet's role transcends ordinary language, reaching into the abstract, the elusive, or the emotionally complex – the "unnameable" – in order to capture and express those aspects of human experience that typically escape words. By illuminating these hidden dimensions, a poet effectively rediscovers and renews our understanding of the world around us.

"I write because I don't know what I think until I read what I say."

Rita Dove suggests that writing is a means for her to explore and clarify her thoughts and ideas. By putting pen to paper, she discovers what she truly thinks or understands about a subject matter. Writing helps to bring clarity and coherence to abstract thoughts, making them more tangible and comprehensible. This quote emphasizes the power of writing as a tool for self-discovery and understanding.

"Words are our most inexhaustible source of power. Words have been mankind’s best friend or its worst enemy."

This quote by Rita Dove emphasizes the profound impact that words can have on individuals and society as a whole. On one hand, words can be empowering, providing knowledge, inspiration, and healing. They are a powerful tool for constructive communication, building relationships, and fostering understanding. On the other hand, words can also be destructive, causing harm, spreading misinformation, and inciting hatred or violence. Thus, it is crucial to use our words wisely and with responsibility, recognizing their potential to shape both ourselves and the world around us.

There are distinct duties of a poet laureate. I plan a reading series at the Library of Congress and advise the librarian. The rest is how I want to promote poetry.

- Rita Dove

Rest, Congress, Laureate, Librarian

I was appointed Poet Laureate. It came totally out of the blue because most Poet Laureates had been considerably older than I. It was not something that I even had begun to dream about!

- Rita Dove

Been, About, Considerably, Laureate

People write me from all over the country, asking me, and sometimes even telling me, what they think a poet laureate should do. I found that immensely valuable.

- Rita Dove

Country, Over, Telling, Laureate

It's the combination of the intimate and the public that I find so exciting about being poet laureate.

- Rita Dove

About, Poet Laureate, Laureate

Being Poet Laureate made me realize I was capable of a larger voice. There is a more public utterance I can make as a poet.

- Rita Dove

Voice, Made, Larger, Laureate

To write for PC reasons, because you think you ought to be dealing with this subject, is never going to yield anything that is really going to matter to anyone else. It has to matter to you.

- Rita Dove

Think, Dealing, Reasons, Yield

I grew up in Ohio, where civil-rights accomplishments had already begun to accelerate before Martin Luther King appeared. In hindsight, we know that many people, black and white, were instrumental in changing the Jim Crow status quo on all levels.

- Rita Dove

Begun, Before, Martin Luther, Jim

I've always been intrigued by the way history works, the way we decide what is mentioned.

- Rita Dove

Always, Been, Works, Intrigued

The sound of the mandolin is a very curious sound because it's cheerful and melancholy at the same time, and I think it comes from that shadow string, the double strings.

- Rita Dove

Think, I Think, Very, Cheerful

The poetry that sustains me is when I feel that, for a minute, the clouds have parted and I've seen ecstasy or something.

- Rita Dove

Clouds, Feel, Ecstasy, Parted

For many years, I thought a poem was a whisper overheard, not an aria heard.

- Rita Dove

Thought, Whisper, Poem, Aria

Have you ever heard a good joke? If you've ever heard someone just right, with the right pacing, then you're already on the way to poetry. It's about using words in very precise ways and using gesture.

- Rita Dove

Very, About, Using, Pacing

It really wasn't until I was in college when I began to write more and more, and I realized I was scheduling my entire life around my writing.

- Rita Dove

College, More, Began, Scheduling

Being true to yourself really means being true to all the complexities of the human spirit.

- Rita Dove

True, Spirit, Means, Complexities

Under adversity, under oppression, the words begin to fail, the easy words begin to fail. In order to convey things accurately, the human being is almost forced to find the most precise words possible, which is a precondition for literature.

- Rita Dove

Human Being, Which, Almost, Precise

Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.

- Rita Dove

Poetry, Most Powerful, Most, Distilled

To practice your scales, so to speak, in order play the symphony, is what you have to do as a young poet.

- Rita Dove

Practice, Play, Young, Symphony

I was apprehensive. I feared every time I talked about poetry, it would be filtered through the lens of race, sex, and age.

- Rita Dove

Through, Race, Feared, Every Time

In working on a poem, I love to revise. Lots of younger poets don't enjoy this, but in the process of revision I discover things.

- Rita Dove

Love, Process, Discover, Revision

Instead of trying to come up and pontificate on what literature is, you need to talk with children, to teachers, and make sure they get poetry in the curriculum early.

- Rita Dove

Need, Come, Sure, Curriculum

My father is a chemist, my mother was a homemaker. My parents instilled in us the feeling that learning was the most exciting thing that could happen to you, and it never ends.

- Rita Dove

Father, Happen, Could, Instilled

Rap is only one end of a whole spectrum of verbal play and virtuosity. Rap is geared for aural pleasure.

- Rita Dove

Play, Rap, Spectrum, Aural

Without imagination we can go nowhere. And imagination is not restricted to the arts. Every scientist I have met who has been a success has had to imagine.

- Rita Dove

Been, Imagine, Scientist, Restricted

It makes me furious to hear haters of all skin colors - especially Christian, Jewish, and Muslim fundamentalists - deride other people because of their different beliefs and lifestyles.

- Rita Dove

Other, Muslim, Makes, Lifestyles

I thought, after the Pulitzer, at least nothing will surprise me quite that much in my life. And another one happened. It was quite amazing.

- Rita Dove

Surprise, My Life, Thought, Pulitzer

Nothing is too small. Nothing is too, quote-unquote, ordinary or insignificant. Those are the things that make up the measure of our days, and they're the things that sustain us. And they're the things that certainly can become worthy of poetry.

- Rita Dove

Small, Nothing, Certainly, Sustain

I think one of the things that people tend to forget is that poets do write out of life. It isn't some set piece that then gets put up on the shelf, but that the impetus, the real instigation for poetry is everything that's happening around us.

- Rita Dove

Some, I Think, Around, Shelf

Going to the library was the one place we got to go without asking for permission. And they let us choose what we wanted to read. It was a feeling of having a book be mine entirely.

- Rita Dove

Mine, Read, Having, Entirely

You have to imagine it possible before you can see something. You can have the evidence right in front of you, but if you can't imagine something that has never existed before, it's impossible.

- Rita Dove

Imagination, Before, Imagine, Front

I didn't know writers could be real live people, because I never knew any writers.

- Rita Dove

Knew, Could, Writers, Be Real

What is ironic is that Allen Ginsberg's importance was in its twilight for so many years that it took his death to bring it to the front page. He electrified an entire world!

- Rita Dove

Death, Took, Allen, Front Page

I think reading Shakespeare's plays when I was young was extremely important. He had the ability to make utter strangers come alive.

- Rita Dove

Think, I Think, Plays, Shakespeare

Equality and self-determination should never be divided in the name of religious or ideological fervor.

- Rita Dove

Equality, Never, Religious, Fervor

I see a resurgence of interest in poetry. I am less optimistic about the prospects for the arts when it comes to federal funding.

- Rita Dove

Funding, Resurgence, About, Federal

I loved to read, but I always thought that the dream was too far away. The person who had written the book was a god, it wasn't a person.

- Rita Dove

Always, Away, Read, Far Away

I have a high guilt quotient. A poem can go through as many as 50 or 60 drafts. It can take from a day to two years-or longer.

- Rita Dove

Guilt, Go, Through, Drafts

I keep the drafts of each poem in color-coded folders. I pick up the folders according to how I feel about that color that day.

- Rita Dove

Color, About, According, Drafts

As an African-American, as a woman, I think that I've been sensitized to the way in which history privileges the white male and the way in which certain aspects of history, the things that we are taught in school, the things that are handed down, never, never entered the picture though they might have been very important.

- Rita Dove

Been, Very, Privileges, African-American

My favorite poets may not be your bread and butter. I have more favorite poems than favorite poets.

- Rita Dove

Bread, Butter, Poems, Poets

There are times in life when, instead of complaining, you do something about your complaints.

- Rita Dove

Complaining, About, Times, Complaints

The American Dream is a phrase we'll have to wrestle with all of our lives. It means a lot of things to different people. I think we're redefining it now.

- Rita Dove

Different People, Means, Our Lives

I prefer to explore the most intimate moments, the smaller, crystallized details we all hinge our lives on.

- Rita Dove

Hinge, Smaller, Prefer, Our Lives

I write short stories, and I wrote a play.

- Rita Dove

Play, Stories, I Write, Short Stories

If we really want to be full and generous in spirit, we have no choice but to trust at some level.

- Rita Dove

Trust, Some, Level, No Choice

I loved to write when I was a child. I wrote, but I always thought it was something that you did as a child, then you put away childish things.

- Rita Dove

Thought, Always, Away, Childish

I always loved science. And in fact, I got a science award in high school. I mean, I loved science, but I think I loved literature more.

- Rita Dove

Think, Always, I Think, Award

I try to show what it is about language and music that enthralls, because I think those are the two elements of poetry.

- Rita Dove

Think, Show, I Think, Elements

For years, I had heard about the lack of interest in literature in the U.S. and I had complained about it. I failed to understand how people could fail to be moved by art.

- Rita Dove

Art, Could, Moved, Failed

I think that you certainly don't have to be aged and travel the world to write a poem.

- Rita Dove

Think, I Think, Certainly, Aged

I make a discovery in a poem as I write it.

- Rita Dove

Discovery, I Write, Make, Poem

I think children have talent and insight, but it gets beaten out of them.

- Rita Dove

Think, Insight, I Think, Gets

I carry a notebook with me everywhere. But that's only the first step.

- Rita Dove

Me, First Step, Only, Everywhere

It's unfortunate that sometimes in schools, there's this need to have things quantified and graded.

- Rita Dove

Sometimes, Need, Unfortunate, Schools

When we are touched by something it's as if we're being brushed by an angel's wings.

- Rita Dove

Wings, Touched, Being, Angel

Libraries are where it all begins.

- Rita Dove

Begins, Where, Libraries

One definition of eternity is that we are not alone on this planet, that there are those who've gone before and those who will come, and that there is a community of spirits.

- Rita Dove

Will, Eternity, Before, Definition

I believe people may have a predisposition for artistic creativity. It doesn't mean they're going to make it.

- Rita Dove

Believe, Going, May, Artistic

All of us have moments in our childhood where we come alive for the first time. And we go back to those moments and think, This is when I became myself.

- Rita Dove

Childhood, Think, Became, First Time

I'm a night person. My best times are midnight to six, actually.

- Rita Dove

Six, Actually, Times, Midnight

What writing does is to reveal.

- Rita Dove

Writing, Does, Reveal

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