From the letters, people would certainly learn more about how a poem is made, ... They may learn more about iambic pentameter than they ever wished. |
He loved this country, ... But he despaired for it. |
He said, 'I can't teach someone how to write,' ... He just thought if you were a poet, you wrote poetry. |
He sort of had a survivor's guilt, ... All of his high school friends were still in Martins Ferry and not leading the most exciting lives. And he got out, and, I think, always felt guilty. |
He was delighted, ... He thought you had to be a rock star or film star to be recognized. |
He was fascinated, ... He and Betty Kray [a former director of the Academy of American Poets] would talk about baking bread all the time. |
I think he was astonished he won it, ... I wasn't, of course. He considered himself a minor poet, not a major poet. |
I wanted him to stop, ... I tried not to nag. What good does it do? It just causes dissension. |
It was peaceful, ... It was very different than anything he knew. I think that appealed to him. |
James loved Rhode Island, ... He loved the ocean. He would sit in his beach chair for hours and look out at the ocean. |
Someone once asked him, 'How many poets do you know there?' ... He said, 'Thank God, none.' |
was very compassionate. He wrote a lot about people down on their luck. |