Anne Stevenson
Anne Stevenson
Anne Stevensonis an American-British poet and writer...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth3 January 1933
CountryUnited States of America
poetry bears weight
Each word bears its weight, so you have to read my poems quite slowly.
ocean sea world
The sea is as near as we come to another world.
thinking poetry feelings
A poem might be defined as thinking about feelings - about human feelings and frailties.
friends no-friends known
There's no friend like someone who has known you since you were five.
literature loyal austen
I remain loyal to Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert in music and to Shakespeare and Jane Austen in literature.
horror century glad
I am now seventy, rather glad, really, that I won't live to see the horrors to come in the 21st century.
canvas violent slap
I don't like poetry that just slaps violent words on a canvas, as it were.
thinking poet should
I think a poet, like a painter, should be a craftsperson.
criticism poet should
Poets should ignore most criticism and get on with making poetry.
criticism too-much kind
There is far too much literary criticism of the wrong kind. That is why I never could have survived as an academic.
laughing confusion unhappy
My earlier poems were sadder than my poems are today, perhaps because I wrote them in confusion or when I was unhappy. But I am not a melancholy person, quite the contrary, no one enjoys laughing more than I do.
marriage book years
I did know Ted Hughes and I partly wrote the book to explain to myself and others the complexities of a marriage that was for six years wonderfully productive of poetry and then ended in tragedy.
memorable ideas giving
I like rhyme because it is memorable, I like form because having to work to a pattern gives me original ideas.
eye intuition judgment
There comes a time when you have to trust your own judgment, when you must close your eyes and let your instinct rule you.