"Well, probably I was fed up with concrete poetry. There was a lot of bad concrete poetry and besides, it was confused with visual poetry which was completely different"
- Ian Hamilton Finlay
About this Quote
This quote by Ian Hamilton Finlay recommends that he was growing tired of concrete poetry, which is a kind of poetry that utilizes visual aspects to convey significance. He suggests that there was a lot of bad concrete poetry, which could be interpreted as an absence of quality or creativity in the category. He likewise recommends that concrete poetry was frequently puzzled with visual poetry, which is a totally various type of poetry. This might be interpreted as an absence of understanding or appreciation for the category of concrete poetry. Finlay's quote implies that he was wearying of the genre and the absence of gratitude for it. He may have been trying to find something new and different to explore in his writing.
"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"
