It's absolutely crucial to maintain my life as a poet.
The commitment to working at poetry is important because a poet is a maker, and a poem is a made thing. We have to honor our feelings by working to transform them into something meaningful and lasting.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of dedication to the craft of poetry and the transformation of emotions into art. Poetry is an intentional creation that embodies personal feelings.
Edward Hirsch's quote highlights the vital role of commitment in the art of poetry. He suggests that poets must actively engage in their craft to transform their innermost feelings into meaningful creations. Poetry, as an act of making, requires not just inspiration but also dedication to give shape and substance to emotions, resulting in works that can endure and resonate with others.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used to inspire a workshop discussion on the dedication required in artistic pursuits.
More from Edward Hirsch
All quotes βAs far as I'm concerned, freedom is the most important thing to creativity. You should feel free to write in whatever way, whatever language, feels comfortable to you.
The idea that a poem was a made thing stayed with me, and I decided then that I wanted to be an artist, not just a diarist. So I put myself through a kind of apprenticeship in writing poetry, and I understood even then that my practice as a poet was deeply related to my reading.
And every year there is a brief, startling moment _x000D_ When we pause in the middle of a long walk home and _x000D_ Suddenly feel something invisible and weightless _x000D_ Touching our shoulders, sweeping down from the air: _x000D_ It is the autumn wind pressing against our bodies; _x000D_ It is the changing light of fall falling on us.
When poetry separates from song, then the words have to carry all the rhythm themselves; they have to do all the work. They can't rely on the singing voice.
The idea of a poem as a message in a bottle means that it's sent out towards some future reader, and the reader who opens that bottle becomes the addressee of the literary text.
Similar quotes
The groove is so mysterious. We're born with it and we lose it and the world seems to split apart before our eyes into stupid and cool. When we get it back, the world unifies around us, and both stupid and cool fall away. I am grateful to those who are keepers of the groove. The babies and the grandmas who hang on to it and help us remember when we forget that any kind of dancing is better than no dancing at all.
He was very much a man of moods, possibly owing to what is styled the artistic temperment. I have never seen, myself, why the possession of artistic ability should be supposed to excuse a man from a decent exercise of self-control.
Sometimes photographers mistake emotion for what makes a great street photograph.
For the poet the credo or doctrine is not the point of arrival but is, on the contrary, the point of departure for the metaphysical journey.
Artists use lies to tell the truth. Yes, I created a lie. But because you believed it, you found something true about yourself.
Pianists call me a composer, composers call me a pianist. The classicists think me a futurist, and the futurists call me a reactionary.