"To know anything of a poet but his poetry is, so far as the poetry is concerned, to know something that may be entertaining, even delightful, but is certainly inessential"
- John Drinkwater
About this Quote
This quote by John Drinkwater recommends that understanding of a poet's life and works beyond their poetry is not necessary to value their poetry. He indicates that understanding of a poet's life can be entertaining and wonderful, however it is not necessary to comprehending their poetry. Drinkwater recommends that the poetry itself is the most crucial aspect of a poet's work, and that knowledge of their life and other works is secondary. He indicates that the poetry is the most important part of a poet's tradition, which understanding of their life and other works is not necessary to value their poetry. This quote encourages readers to focus on the poetry itself, rather than the poet's life, in order to get a deeper understanding of their work.
This quote is written / told by John Drinkwater between June 1, 1882 and March 25, 1937. He/she was a famous Poet from England.
The author also have 19 other quotes.
"We don't attempt to have any theme for a number of the anthology, or to have any particular sequence. We just put in things that we like, and then we try to alternate the prose and the poetry"
"Concrete poets continue to turn out beautiful things, but to me they're more visual than oral, and they almost really belong on the wall rather than in a book. I haven't the least idea of where poetry is going"
"I think Ginsberg has done more harm to the craft that I honor and live by than anybody else by reducing it to a kind of mean that enables the most dubious practitioners to claim they are poets because they think, If the kind of thing Ginsberg does is poetry, I can do that"
