It seems to me that readers sometimes make the genesis of a poem more mysterious than it is (by that I perhaps mean, think of it as something outside their own experience). – James Schuyler
To change your phrase somewhat, I know that I like an art where disparate elements form an entity. – James Schuyler
The aim of the poet, or other artist, is first to make something; and it’s impossible to make something out of words and not communicate. – James Schuyler
In the past I have declined to comment on my own work: because, it seems to me, a poem is what it is; because a poem is itself a definition, and to try to redefine it is to be apt to falsify it; and because the author is the person least able to consider his work objectively. – James Schuyler
I do not usually revise much, though I often cut, particularly the end or toward the end of a poem. – James Schuyler
It is always pleasant to learn that someone takes an interest in a work which one enjoyed writing. – James Schuyler
However, intention needn’t enter in, and if a reader sees things in a religious way, and the work is dogmatically acceptable, then I don’t see why it should not be interpreted in that way, as well as in others. – James Schuyler
