{ 2008 07 21 }

poetry is manipulation

A successful poem is, as Williams said, a machine made out of words; if it is properly constructed it cannot fail to perform its function, which is to control its reader, by its selective and stylized processional means, that the reader ‘cannot choose to hear.’

— Helen Vendler, Contemporary American Poetry (9th ed.), p. 9.

Haha, I feel smart. I already knew this.

Nah, I don’t feel that smart.

Posted by Grace Notes @ Snarkattack on Monday, July 21st, 2008, at 3:42 pm, and filed under lit stuff.

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