“My feeling is that poetry will wither on the vine if you don't regularly come back to the simplest fundamentals of the poem: rhythm, rhyme, simple subjects - love, death, war.”

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Meaning

This argues for keeping poetry grounded in its oldest tools, so it does not become strained or self-conscious. It can be read as a defense of music in verse and of subjects that are plain but endless in human interest. In a workshop or classroom, it lands as a reminder that experimentation still needs a clear pulse and emotional center.

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Originally said in English.

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About James Fenton

James Fenton is quoted here; further biographical details are not publicly available.

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