A glance at the history of European poetry is enough to inform us that rhyme itself is not indispensable. Latin poetry in the classical age had no use for it, and the kind of Latin poetry that does rhyme - as for instance the medieval Carmina Burana - tends to be somewhat crude stuff in comparison with the classical verse that doesn't.

The writing of a poem is like a child throwing stones into a mineshaft. You compose first, then you listen for the reverberation.

When Mr Ackroyd says that in the 18th century, stranglers bit off the noses of their victims, I feel that he probably knows what he is talking about. I just wish he hadn't told me.

Modernism in other arts brought extreme difficulty. In poetry, the characteristic difficulty imported under the name of modernism was obscurity. But obscurity could just as easily be a quality of metrical as of free verse.

Nobody really knows whether they are a poet. I knew I was interested from the age of 15.

Babies are not brought by storks and poets are not produced by workshops.

English poetry begins whenever we decide to say the modern English language begins, and it extends as far as we decide to say that the English language extends.