A sentence is like a tune. A memorable sentence gives its emotion a melodic shape. You want to hear it again, say itโin a way, to hum it to yourself. You desire, if only in the sound studio of your imagination, to repeat the physical experience of that sentence. That craving, emotional and intellectual but beginning in the body with a certain gesture of sound, is near the heart of poetry.
Robert PinskyTo talk about the reality of life here and the work that you do here at the university.
Robert PinskyThe medium of poetry is a human body: the column of air inside the chest, shaped into signifying sounds in the larynx and the mouth. In this sense, poetry is just as physical or bodily an art as dancing.
Robert Pinsky