In Memory: “I see no reason to spend your life writing poems unless your goal is to write great poems.”

Art of Quotation

In a 1983 essay, “Poetry and Ambition,” Mr. Hall began it by saying,

“I see no reason to spend your life writing poems unless your goal is to write great poems.”

He went on to assail much of the poetry world, finding mediocrity there, or what he calls the “McPoem.”

“We write and publish the McPoem — ten billion served — which becomes our contribution to the history of literature.”

source

Donald Hall, 1928-2018. Poet

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