I think what gets a poem going is an initiating line. Sometimes a first line will occur, and it goes nowhere; but other times - and this, I think, is a sense you develop - I can tell that the line wants to continue.
Billy CollinsRead
I think what gets a poem going is an initiating line. Sometimes a first line will occur, and it goes nowhere; but other times - and this, I think, is a sense you develop - I can tell that the line wants to continue. If it does, I can feel a sense of momentum - the poem finds a reason for continuing.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The essence of poetry often starts with a compelling first line that drives the rest of the poem forward.
In this quote, Billy Collins discusses the creative process of writing poetry, particularly emphasizing the importance of the first line as a spark that can either lead to a complete piece or fade away without further development. He suggests that intuition plays a role in recognizing which lines have the potential to grow, giving a sense of momentum that guides the poem's progression.
Themes
PoetryCreativityWritingMomentumArt
In practice
Example use cases
In a workshop about creative writing, a facilitator might use this quote to illustrate the importance of a strong opening line.
More from Billy Collins
All quotes βPeople think of poetry as a school subject... Poetry is very frustrating to students because they don't have a taste for ambiguity, for one thing. That gives them a poetry hangover.
Billy CollinsRead
To a poet, it's quite ruinous to have a poem distorted, out of shape, or squeezed, shall we say, into this tiny screen. But I'm not sure big digital companies are sensitive to the needs of poets.
Billy CollinsRead
All they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with a rope and torture a confession out of it. They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means.
Billy CollinsRead
And the reason I am writing this on the back of a manila envelope now that they have left the train together is to tell you that when she turned to lift the large, delicate cello onto the overhead rack, I saw him looking up at her and what she was doing the way the eyes of saints are painted when they are looking up at God when he is doing something remarkable, something that identifies him as God.
Billy CollinsRead
The whole world of publishing is moving to electronic, but when you put a poem on a screen and you increase the type size, the shape of a poem changes.
Billy CollinsRead
Similar quotes
A hundred years from now, people will listen to the music of the Beatles the same way we listen to Mozart.
Paul MccartneyRead
I am a professional photographer because it is the best way I know to earn the money I require to take care of my wife and children.
Irving PennRead
A lot can be said with just a look, or the way the body moves. Each song is a different character. So each song takes on a different movement of the body. And the body has to go with the subject and the attitude that you have toward that subject.
Eartha KittRead
Working in Hollywood does give one a certain expertise in the field of prostitution.
Jane FondaRead
Her other mother smiled brightly and the hair on her head drifted like plants under the sea.
Neil GaimanRead
I like a thing simple but it must be simple through complication. Everything must come into your scheme, otherwise you cannot achieve real simplicity.
Gertrude SteinRead