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Conjectures At Random

Let us not conjecture at random about the greatest things.
—Heraclitus

William Carlos Williams

A poem is a small (or large) machine made out of words.
—William Carlos Williams

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Labels: William Carlos Williams

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A commonplace book; repository of quotes related to poetry and art.

what's he building in there?
—Tom Waits

abandon about absence abstract abstraction academic academy accents accept accessibility accident account accuracy achievement act action actual actualist adjectives Adonis advert advertiser aesthetic range aesthetics against poetry age Agnes Martin ahistorical object air Albert Goldbarth alcohol Alejandra Pizarnik Alexandrian poets Alfred Hitchcock Algernon Charles Swinburne alien alienated Alison Laurie allegory Allen Grossman Allen Tate alliteration allusion alone amateur ambiguous ambition Ambroise Vollard anachronistic ancient André Breton anecdote anger angle Anglo-Saxon animal animals Anna Akhmatova anonymity anonymous anthology antipoetry Antonin Artaud aphorisms appreciation approach approximation arcades archetype Archibald MacLeish architecture ardor argument Aristotle army ars poetica art art history art is art quote art quotes artiness artisanlike artist artist's statement artists arts aspiration aspirin assonance astonish astonished atoms attention attribute audience audio auditory imagination Audre Lorde Auguste Rodin aural author awards ax axioms bad reviews bad writing ballads Barbara Howes baroque Basho bauble Baudelaire Beat poetry beauty becoming becoming a poet beginning being belief believe bells Ben Jonson Bertolt Brecht Bertrand Russell better bildungs birds Black Mountain College blank blend block blotted blue blurbs Bob Dylan Bob Kaufman bodily body book book burning book marketing books bookshelf Boris Pasternak borrow boundary brain science branches bread breakages breath breathing brevity bric-a-brac brief poem brilliance Brion Gysin building business butterflies buying books C. Day Lewis C. G. Jung C. K. Chesterton C. P. Cavafy C.D. Wright calculus calvinist campus candor canon career careful Carl Sandburg castles cat cataclysm category caution central image certainty César Vallejo chair change chaperoned character charge Charles Bukowski Charles Eliot Norton Charles Olson Charles Reznikoff Charles Simic chasing Chaucer checkers cheese chess child childhood chimeras Chinese poetry Chistopher Hitchens chorus Christopher Marlowe church cicada civilizations clarity clash clay cliché closed closure collections collide colloquial color comma comment common ground common life commonplace commonplace book commonplaces communication compactness complexity compliment composition concentration concept conception concision concrete conflict confusion conjunctions connected consensus consistency consolation of poetry constancies contemporaries contemporary content context continuing continuous process contrasts contribute control cooked copulation correlation cosmos couplet cowardice cows crack craft creation creativity creator credo critic critical approach critical method critical remark critical terms criticism critics crow crown cultivation culture cunning. fatherland currency customary cut Czeslaw Milosz D.H. Lawrence dada daily lives dance danger Daniel Aaron Dante dark dark things darkness David Bowie David Ignatow David Joselit dead dead poets death decay deep down things defamiliarization defense of poetry definition definition of poetry deformity delicate delight Delmore Schwartz democratic Denise Levertov derive description design despair destiny destruction devouring dialect diction dictionary difficulty digital literature direction dirge discipline discover discovery discrimination disenchant disgusting disintoxicate distillation distinction diverse divine art divinely conscious domes Don Quixote Donald Justice door doubt dramatic function dream poem drinking duende durable dust Dylan Thomas E. B. White E. H. Gombrich E. M. Cioran ear earth ease Eavan Boland eclectic economy ecstasy Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Degas Edmond Spenser Eduardo Galeano educate education Edward Burns-Jones Edward Thomas effort ego elemental forms elephants Elias Canetti Elizabeth Bishop emcompass Emily Dickinson eminent Victorians emotion employment end energy engagement English ephemeral epic epitaph Eric Ormsby erosion erotic erotics error escape essence essential estrangement et in arcardia ego ethics ethos etymologist etymology Eugenio Montale event Evgény Abrámovitch Baratýnsky evocativeness exact exaltation excitement execution exhausted exile existence existent experience explain explanation explicit expression eye Ezra Pound fables fact factory facts fairy-land fallow falsehood familiar fancy fantasy farmers fashion favorite poems favorite poets favorite word Federico Garcia Lorca feeling feelings Fernando Pessoa fiction field of study figure film fin de siècle fine excess finish finished fires first person first poems first poetry first speech flaw fluid flying folly footnote footnotes force Ford Madox Ford forgetfulness form forms formula fossil poetry fragment fragments framing Francis Bacon Frank O'Hara Franz Kafka Frederick Smock free free speech free verse freedom freshness Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Schlegel friend frost frozen sea fulcrum function furniture future G. K. Chesterton G.H.W. Rylands G.W.F. Hegel Gabriela Mistral galaxy Gaston Bachelard gaudiness genius genre gentlemen Geoffrey Moore George Bernard Shaw George Oppen George Santayana George Seferis Georgia O'Keeffe Gerard Manley Hopkins Gertrude Stein get it right gewgaw ghosts Giacomo Leopardi gift God gold gold bars good poetry grail grasp gratitude gray great poem great poet great themes great writer Greek art Greek poetry grief group Guillaume Apollinaire Guy Davenport habit hackwork haiku half harem harmonic harmonious Harold Bloom harvest Hayden Carruth head hear heart Heather McHugh Helen Vendler Henry David Thoreau Henry James Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Heraclitus Herbert Read Herman Melville hermeneutics hidden hidden place history home Homer hometown honors Horace horizon horrible house how does it mean Howard Nemerov human human existence humane humor hunger I-lyric iconclast idea ideal reader ideas idiosyncratic idolatry ignorance image imagery images imagination imitate immediacy immortal impact imperfect improvement impulse include income incomplete incongruity independence indeterminate indifference indirect influence information infusion ingenutiy injured inner inner workings innocent innovation inorganic inscription insouciance inspiration instant insular integrity intellect intellectual intelligence interpretation interview intuition invent invention Ireland iridescent Irish poetry Italian poetry Ivor Winters J. S. Mill J.M. Coetzee J.V. Cunningham Jack Gilbert Jacques Barzun Jacques Maritain James Dickey James Joyce James Longenbach James Murray James Richardson James Scully James Wright Jane Hirshfield Jean Cocteau Jennifer Roberts JF Jim Harrison Joanne Kyger Johann Gottlieb Fichte Johannes Brahms John Ashbery John Berryman John Ciardi John Hollander John Keats John Marin John Milton Jorge Luis Borges Jorie Graham Joseph Brodsky Joseph Epstein Josephine Jacobsen Josiah Royce joy Jr. Juan Ramón Jiménez judgment jujubes Jules Supervielle Justus Buchler Kenneth Rexroth Kenneth Yasuda key key phrases kintsugi knights knowledge label labor laborious landscape landscapes language language game language poetry last line lasting things Latin Latin Poetry Latinate vocabulary laughter Laura Riding law of errors leave off length Leonard Cohen library life life of the poet light limit line line break line ending lineage lines Lisel Mueller list making lists literal literary anecdote literature lives of the artists lives of the poets living living thing logic long line long poem longing Longinus looking lost lost languages Louis Aragon Louis MacNeice Louis Sullivan Louis Zukofsky Louise Bogan Louise Glück love love poetry lover Lu Ji Lucian Blaga Lucian of Samosata Ludwig Wittgenstein luxury Lyn Hejinian lyric lyric poetry lyrical M.C. Richards machine madness magic magnitude Magyars majesty make make it new maker making man from porlock mannerism Margeurite Yourcenar marginalia Marianne Moore Marina Tsvetaeva Marjorie Agosin Mark Leidner Mark Rothko Martial martyrs master material mathematics matter Matthew Arnold Max Jacob Maya meaning means media Melville Cane memorizing poems memory mentally prepared metaphor metaphors metaphysical meter method Meyer Schapiro Michael Oakeshott Michelangelo Miguel de Cervantes Miltonic mind minor poet Mira Rosenthal mischief mise en scène misprint model modern modernism modest Molière moment momentary money monk moral motion motto movie multidimensional multiplicity multum in parvo Muriel Rukeyser muses music musical setting mysteries mystery myth mythopoeic mythos myths name nameless naming narcissism narrative business natural naturalist naturally nature Nazim Hikmet necessity need negation negative capability neglect nerve new new poetry newness news newspaper Nobel Prize for Literature nobly disheveled Northrop Frye notebook notes noun Novalis novel novelist novelty nursery rhyme object objective objective correlative objectivists objects obligation oblique obscure obscurity observation observer Occam's Razor occupations Octavio Paz OED old Old English old poetry one's art open opinion opposite opposition order ordinary ordinary language ordinary things organic original originality ornament Oscar Wilde Osip Mandelstam ostranenie outer output outside world outsiders overused words Pablo Neruda Pablo Picasso pace page pain painter painters painting panorama paradise paragraph parent parerga part Parthenon particularity partisan passages passion past pathos patience pattern Paul Cézanne Paul Klee Paul Valéry paul verlaine pebble pedagogy pelican penalty pentimenti people perceptible perception perceptions percision Percy Bysshe Shelley perfect perfection performance period permanent person personal library personality personificaiton pet words Peter Viereck Phalaris phenomenology Philip Levine philosopher philosophy phrase physical physical reaction Pierre Bonnard pigments place plain Plato playwright pleasure poem is poet poet is poet's calling poet's job poetic elements poetic image poetic limits poetic line poetics essays poetry poetry books poetry collection poetry is poetry reading patter poetry readings poetry v. prose poets poets' poet polictian political poetry popular songs potency potential power praise prayer precious precise precision present moment priest primitive printer problems process product proper names props prose prose errand prosody pseudo-romanticism public publication publisher punctuation pure poetry purpose qualities Quasimodo question quiet quirky quotation quotes Rainer Maria Rilke Ralph J. Mills Ralph Waldo Emerson Randall Jarrell rapid rare raw reader readership reading reading aloud reading poetry real realist reality reason recognition record recording recurring words refine rejected rejection slip relationships religion remark remarks remembrance rendering repair repetition reputation resist resonance responsibility result revelation reviewers revision revolution rhetoric rhyme rhythm Richard Howard Richard Hugo Richard Wilbur right right word river roam Robert Bly Robert Duncan Robert Frost Robert Graves Robert Lowell Robert Penn Warren Robert Philips Robert Southey Robert Walser Robinson Jeffers rock rock star rocks Roland Barthes role Roman Jakobson Roman poetry romantic romantic poetry romanticism root Roque Dalton Rudolf Steiner Russian Formalism Russian poetics S. T. Coleridge sailors same poem Samuel Johnson Sappho saturate saved saying scheme scholars school science scope scrape scraps of language scrawl sculpture secret of poetry see seeing self self-critical self-indulgent semantic semicolon sensations sense senses sensibility sensuality sentence sentences sentimental separate serious serpent setting sexism Shakespeare shamefaced shapes shards sharp remark shepherd shop-talk shopping short line short story silence silent simile Simone Weil simple simplicity simplify sing skill slant sleep slights small small forms small poem small things soap bubble society Socrates solid soliloquy solitude Solon the Wise solutions song song lyrics sophistication Soren Kierkegaard sorrow soul sound sound and sense soup space Spanish speaker specific speech sphinx spirit spiritual St. John Perse St. Thomas Aquinas stained-glass stakes stance standards Stanley Fish Stanley Kunitz stanza star static stature stay steal steel Stephen Leacock Stephen Spender sterile stone stop stories stormy strange stress structure student students stumbling style subject subjective subjectivity subjects sublime substance substitution of terms suffering supreme fiction surprise surrealism Susan Sontag Susanne Langer sustenance syllable Sylvia Plath symbol symbols sympathetic magic sympathies sympathy system systematic T.S. Eliot table table talk Tagore tale talent talk poetry taste taxonomy teaching teaching writing tear tears technique techniques Ted Hughes teeth tell teller temptation tenderness the age the bar the big short the times theatre theft Theodore Roethke theology theory thing thing itself thingness things thinking Thom Gunn Thomas Carlyle Thomas Hardy thought thoughts three-name poets time time batteries times tissue Tomas Tranströmer tools Torquato Tasso totality touch tourist toy trade tradition traditional form tragedy transcendent transformation translation tree tremble triggering town trinket trivial trope trust truth turn twenty-fifth poem twisting typo tyrants ugly Umberton Eco uncertainty understanding unity universal universe university untranslatable ursprache ut pictura poesis Vachel Lindsay vagueness vector veneration verities verse verse is vices Vienna Viktor Shklovsky village explainer violence Virgil Virginia Woolf virtues vision Vladimir Nabokov vocabulary vocation Vuillard vulgar W. B. Yeats W. H. Auden W. R. Johnson W. Somerset Maugham wag walking Wallace Stevens Walt Whitman Walter Anderson Walter Pater war waste water pistols weather weaver Wei T'ai Weldon Kees well-made Werner Heisenberg whales what's poetry for where poems come from white fathers whole wild wild flower wildness will William Blake William Carlos Williams William Gass William Jay Smith William Morris William Shakespeare William Stafford William Wordsworth wind window wine winter wisdom wit witness women women's poetry women's writing wonder word word play words wordum wrixlan work work of art world writing writing poetry writing well written poetry wrong words yiddish young poets youth Yvor Winters Zbigniew Herbert Zeuxis Zibaldone

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