"I don’t like poetry that just slaps violent words on a canvas, as it were." ― Anne Stevenson Topic(s): Poetry More From Anne Stevenson "Each word bears its weight, so you have to read my poems quite slowly." "I did know Ted Hughes and I partly wrote the book to explain to myself and others the complexities of a marriage that was for six years wonderfully productive of poetry and then ended in tragedy." "I dislike literary jargon and never use it. Criticism has only one function and that is to help readers read and understand literature. It is not a science, it is an aid to art." More In Poetry "We recognise in the finished art, which is the result of these conditions, the best words in the best order – poetry; and to put this essential poetry into different classes is impossible."― John Drinkwater "As to London we must console ourselves with the thought that if life outside is less poetic than it was in the days of old, inwardly its poetry is much deeper."― Goldwin Smith "Dancing is the poetry of the foot."― John Dryden