Writing for the page is only one form of writing for the eye. Wherever solemn inscriptions are put up in public places, there is a sense that the site and the occasion demand a form of writing which goes beyond plain informative prose. Each word is so valued that the letters forming it are seen as objects of solemn beauty.

The voice is raised, and that is where poetry begins. And even today, in the prolonged aftermath of modernism, in places where "open form" or free verse is the orthodoxy, you will find a memory of that raising of the voice in the term "heightened speech".

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.

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

Generally speaking, rhyme is the marker for the end of a line. The first rhyme-word is like a challenge thrown down, which the poem itself has to respond to.

Great poetry does not have to be technically intricate.

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