George Oppen Quotes

• The self is no mystery, the mystery is / That there is something for us to stand on

  George Oppen

  Self, Mystery

  George Oppen, Robert Creeley (2003). “George Oppen: Selected Poems”, p.80, New Directions Publishing

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• It is necessary to study these words you have written, for the words have a longer history than you have and say more than you know.

  George Oppen

  Study, Knows, Written

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• The meaning of a poem is in the cadences and the shape of the lines and the pulse of the thought which is given by those lines.

  George Oppen

  Pulse, Shapes, Lines

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• Those who are not very concerned with art want poems or pictures to record for them something they already know - as one might want a picture of a place he loves.

  George Oppen

  Art, Poetry, Records

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• Things explain each other, not themselves.

  George Oppen

  George Oppen, Rachel Blau DuPlessis (1990). “The Selected Letters of George Oppen”, p.115, Duke University Press

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• Clarity, clarity, surely clarity is the most beautiful thing in the world, A limited, limiting clarity I have not and never did have any motive of poetry But to achieve clarity.

  George Oppen

  Beautiful, World, Clarity

  George Oppen (2008). “New Collected Poems”, p.193, New Directions Publishing

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• There are situations which cannot honorably be met by art.

  George Oppen

  Art, Mets, Situation

  George Oppen (2008). “Selected Prose, Daybooks, and Papers”, p.36, Univ of California Press

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• The first question at that time in poetry was simply the question of honesty, of sincerity.

  George Oppen

  Honesty, Firsts, Honest

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• A pure mathematical series would be one in which each term is derived from the preceding term by a rule.

  George Oppen

  Would Be, Mathematical, Term

  George Oppen, Michael Davidson (2002). “New Collected Poems”, p.357, New Directions Publishing

  4 Copy quote

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