Robert Frost1874–1963- The Figure a Poem Makes (1939)
Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.
A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.
Letter to Louis Untermeyer (January 1, 1916)- Interview with with Harvey Breit of The New York Times Book Review. As quoted in the following source: Associated Press (30 January 1963). “Robert Frost Dies at 88
I have never started a poem yet whose end I knew. Writing a poem is discovering.
A poet never takes notes. You never take notes in a love affair.
BBC Interview with Cecil Day Lewis (13 September 1957); transcripts published in “It Takes a Hero to Make a Poem” in the Claremont Quarterly (Spring 1958)Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.
Address at Milton Academy, Massachusetts (May 17, 1935)Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting.
The Figure a Poem Makes (1939)
