"Poetry is language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree."
This quote by Robert Pinsky emphasizes that poetry is not just ordinary language; it's language imbued with intense, profound, or multiple layers of meaning. Poetry transcends everyday speech by condensing emotions, ideas, and experiences into a compact form, making the language more potent and evocative than usual. It's a testament to poetry's unique ability to convey complex thoughts and feelings in a captivating manner.
"A good poem should be like a door into a house you'd want to live in."
Robert Pinsky's quote suggests that a good poem should serve as an inviting portal, offering a glimpse into a world or an experience that is intriguing and appealing. Just as a desirable home offers comfort, beauty, and a sense of belonging, a powerful poem transports the reader to a place where they feel a connection, perhaps even a longing to stay and explore further. In essence, this quote highlights the transformative power of poetry in forging emotional bonds between readers and the words on the page.
"The best metaphors are the ones you don't notice while reading."
The quote by Robert Pinsky emphasizes that the most effective metaphors, in literature or everyday language, are those which seamlessly integrate with the reader's understanding. These metaphors, though powerful in their ability to illuminate connections between seemingly disparate concepts, should ideally not disrupt the flow of thought or require excessive cognitive effort from the reader. Instead, they should resonate and enrich the narrative or conversation, allowing readers to engage more deeply with the subject matter while continuing to appreciate it as a natural part of the discourse.
"Art exists because the world is chaotic and meaningless, and it gives us a chance to impose a certain order on it."
This quote by Robert Pinsky suggests that art serves as a means to bring order and purpose to a world perceived as chaotic or devoid of inherent meaning. Through the creative process, individuals can construct their unique interpretation and narrative, providing a personal sense of structure and understanding in an otherwise complex and seemingly senseless universe. Art, therefore, plays a vital role in human experience, allowing us to make sense of our surroundings and express ourselves in a way that resonates with others, fostering connection and shared understanding.
"A good poem is one that tells you the truth about its pleasure as well as its pain."
This quote suggests that a powerful poem not only conveys the raw emotion, or pain, it aims to express, but also its underlying joy or delight - the inherent pleasure derived from its creation or appreciation. In other words, a good poem successfully balances the duality of human experience, revealing both the difficult and the beautiful aspects of life.
When I was a kid, there was unhappiness in my family - was dealt with partly by escaping to television. And from a very early age, for whatever reason, I became scornful and resistant to and angry about that. And some other time in my life, I realized that there's a lot I loved in television.
- Robert Pinsky
I think my first experience of art, or the joy in making art, was playing the horn at some high-school dance or bar mitzvah or wedding, looking at a roomful of people moving their bodies around in time to what I was doing. There was a piano player, a bass player, a drummer, and my breath making the melody.
- Robert Pinsky
The best argument for teaching poetry is to put a three-year-old or a four-year-old and read Dr. Seuss, or Robert Louis Stevenson, and to feel how the child and you are engaging in something that's really basic to the animal, which is passing on in these rhythmic ways, something that came from somewhere.
- Robert Pinsky
If you want to make films, you'll watch Kurosawa. If you want to play a violin, you listen to Seghetti. Same with somebody who has the ambition to play in the NBA. I watch a basketball game; I enjoy it. Somebody who really wants to learn to play is studying whatever is most magnificent that's going on out there.
- Robert Pinsky
All questions of process require an answer that begins with a very important sentence, and the sentence is: 'Everybody is different.' Whatever way of working you name - methodical, haphazard, gets up early in the morning, sleeps all day, works at night, revises immensely, never revises at all - someone has made great work with that way.
- Robert Pinsky
The last thing a young artist should do in poetry or any other field is think about what's in style, what's current, what are the trends. Think instead of what you like to read, what do you admire, what you like to listen to in music. What do you like to look at in architecture? Try to make a poem that has some of those qualities.
- Robert Pinsky
For a lot of people, well-meaning teaching has made poetry seem arcane, difficult, a kind of brown-knotting medicine that might be good for you but doesn't taste so good. So I tried to make a collection of poetry that would be fun. And that would bring out poetry as an art, rather than the challenge to say smart things.
- Robert Pinsky
To me, writing is a matter of voice. I think like that. The expression I sometimes use to myself is 'actual song.' That what I do is somewhere on the line between speaking to you as I am now and actual song. And the things I love when I say one of those poems to myself - it's a little bit like singing, it's a little bit like speaking.
- Robert Pinsky
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