Quotes by Helen Vendler

Helen Vendler

A poem needs imaginative rhythms as well as imaginative transformation of content.

Needs

Rhythm

Transformation

All good poets of the past, almost without exception, were at least bilingual if not trilingual.

Exception

Past

Poet

Each poem leads you to the questions it makes sense to ask it.

Asks

Make Sense

For the critic, criticism is a form of natural self-expression, as poetry is to the poet. So, for a critic, criticism is a true thing. Criticism isn’t written for poets, it’s written for other readers. One hopes it is true for other readers if it’s true for oneself.

Criticism

Expression

Self

For the mind and the imagination, bookstores aren’t enough, college courses aren’t enough, the Internet isn’t enough. Those resources are all governed by the tastes and needs of the moment. Only libraries take the long view, quietly shelving the unused with the used, knowing that one of these days the two categories will be reversed by a student’s discovery of those hitherto undisturbed volumes whose contents will unsettle the learned world.

College

Discovery

Views

I do not give the honorific name of ‘poetry’ to the primitive and the unaccomplished.

Giving

Names

Primitive

I like art history and art criticism. Leo Steinberg has always been my favorite. Hes very original, very accurate and acute.

Art

Criticism

My Favorite

I liked teaching Henry James. When you look down at a Henry James novel from a helicopter height, you find an intricate spider web that all clings together.

Spiders

Teaching

Together

I was unnerved to learn in my twenties that the poems of Emily Dickinson that I had memorized as a girl were not the poems as she had written them.

Girl

Twenties

Written

If you like the precision and concision of poetry, a page of prose is unsatisfying in a certain way. And poetry is so direct.

Pages

Precision

Way

Follow The Behaviour University in order to get the greatest quotes from the greatest people of all time so that you can tap into your own greatness.

Art

Artist

Asks

Busy

Chance

College

Criticism

Destined

Disappear

Discovery

Exception

Expression

Fame

Firsts

Girl

Giving

Glory

Identity

Literature

Make Sense

Modern

My Favorite

Names

Needs

Pages

Past

People

Play

Poet

Precision

Primitive

Rhythm

Self

Soul

Spiders

Teaching

Thinking

Together

Transformation

Twenties

Utterance

Views

Voice

Way

Written

The Future Blueprint

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The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

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Quotes by Helen Vendler

Helen Vendler

A poem needs imaginative rhythms as well as imaginative transformation of content.

All good poets of the past, almost without exception, were at least bilingual if not trilingual.

Each poem leads you to the questions it makes sense to ask it.

For the critic, criticism is a form of natural self-expression, as poetry is to the poet. So, for a critic, criticism is a true thing. Criticism isn’t written for poets, it’s written for other readers. One hopes it is true for other readers if it’s true for oneself.

I do not give the honorific name of ‘poetry’ to the primitive and the unaccomplished.

I like art history and art criticism. Leo Steinberg has always been my favorite. Hes very original, very accurate and acute.

I liked teaching Henry James. When you look down at a Henry James novel from a helicopter height, you find an intricate spider web that all clings together.

I was unnerved to learn in my twenties that the poems of Emily Dickinson that I had memorized as a girl were not the poems as she had written them.

If you like the precision and concision of poetry, a page of prose is unsatisfying in a certain way. And poetry is so direct.

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Topics by Helen Vendler

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The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

The Autobiography

The Behaviour Diary

The Dating Diary

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