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37 Top Quotes By A. R. Ammons

Famous As: Poet
Born On: 1926
Died On: 2001
Born In: Whiteville, North Carolina, United States
Died At Age: 75

Archie Randolph Ammons was an American poet, novelist and essayist. he was awarded the reputed National Book of Award for poetry. He specialized in writing about subjects pertaining to relationship between nature and humanity while attributing humor and awe-inspiring tones. His poetry preached transcendental mixture of religious and philosophical matters garnished with the complex relationship of nature and the soul. He went on to receive accolades such as National Book Critics Circle Award and Bollingen Prize for Poetry for his work in A Coast of Trees and Sphere: The Form of a Motion respectively. He received the most restigious 'National Book of Award' for poetry twice for his works Collected Poems and Garbage. His prominent prose writing works include Set in Motion: Essays, Interviews, and Dialogues (1996) and An Image for Longing: Selected Letters and Journals of A.R. Ammon. While many critics applaud the work of Ammons, some accuse of his work in familiar lines with Emerson, Whitman and Emily Dickinson. Let us go through some of the famous quotes from this legendary American poet, highlighting his thoughts and sayings

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Things go away to return, brightened for the passage

Things go away to return, brightened for the passage

A. R. Ammons
Is it not careless to become too local when there are four hundred billion stars in our galaxy alone.

Is it not careless to become too local when there are four hundred billion stars in our galaxy alone.

A. R. Ammons
In nature there are few sharp lines.

In nature there are few sharp lines.

A. R. Ammons
Only silence perfects silence.

Only silence perfects silence.

A. R. Ammons
You have your identity when you find out, not what you can keep your mind on, but what you can't keep your mind off.

You have your identity when you find out, not what you can keep your mind on, but what you can't keep your mind off.

A. R. Ammons
One can't 
have it

both ways 
and both

ways is 
the only

way I 
want it.

One can't have it both ways and both ways is the only way I want it.

A. R. Ammons
I must stress here the point that I appreciate clarity, order, meaning, structure, rationality: they are necessary to whatever provisional stability we have, and they can be the agents of gradual and successful change.

I must stress here the point that I appreciate clarity, order, meaning, structure, rationality: they are necessary to whatever provisional stability we have, and they can be the agents of gradual and successful change.

A. R. Ammons
Definition, rationality, and structure are ways of seeing, but they become prisons when they blank out other ways of seeing.

Definition, rationality, and structure are ways of seeing, but they become prisons when they blank out other ways of seeing.

A. R. Ammons
Anything looked at closely becomes wonderful.

Anything looked at closely becomes wonderful.

A. R. Ammons

Even if you walk exactly the same route each time - as with a sonnet - the events along the route cannot be imagined to be the same from day to day, as the poet's health, sight, his anticipations, moods, fears, thoughts cannot be the same.

A. R. Ammons
I am grateful for - though I can't keep up with - the flood of articles, theses, and textbooks that mean to share insight concerning the nature of poetry.

I am grateful for - though I can't keep up with - the flood of articles, theses, and textbooks that mean to share insight concerning the nature of poetry.

A. R. Ammons
What destruction have I been blessed by?

What destruction have I been blessed by?

A. R. Ammons
If we ask a vague question, such as, 'What is poetry?' we expect a vague answer, such as, 'Poetry is the music of words,' or 'Poetry is the linguistic correction of disorder.'

If we ask a vague question, such as, 'What is poetry?' we expect a vague answer, such as, 'Poetry is the music of words,' or 'Poetry is the linguistic correction of disorder.'

A. R. Ammons
If the greatest god is the stillness all the motions add up to, then we must ineluctably be included.

If the greatest god is the stillness all the motions add up to, then we must ineluctably be included.

A. R. Ammons
There's something to be said in favor of working in isolation in the real world.

There's something to be said in favor of working in isolation in the real world.

A. R. Ammons
Once every five hundred years or so, a summary statement about poetry comes along that we can't imagine ourselves living without.

Once every five hundred years or so, a summary statement about poetry comes along that we can't imagine ourselves living without.

A. R. Ammons
If a poem is each time new, then it is necessarily an act of discovery, a chance taken, a chance that may lead to fulfillment or disaster.

If a poem is each time new, then it is necessarily an act of discovery, a chance taken, a chance that may lead to fulfillment or disaster.

A. R. Ammons
Not so much looking for the shape
as being available
to any shape that may be
summoning itself
through me
from the self not mine but ours.

Not so much looking for the shape as being available to any shape that may be summoning itself through me from the self not mine but ours.

A. R. Ammons
Poetry leads us to the unstructured sources of our beings, to the unknown, and returns us to our rational, structured selves refreshed.

Poetry leads us to the unstructured sources of our beings, to the unknown, and returns us to our rational, structured selves refreshed.

A. R. Ammons
To be saved is here, local and mortal

To be saved is here, local and mortal

A. R. Ammons
Plant the seed whose vine or tree may hang you.

Plant the seed whose vine or tree may hang you.

A. R. Ammons
The reeds give
way to the

wind and give
the wind away

The reeds give way to the wind and give the wind away

A. R. Ammons
Reflective

I found a
weed
that had a

mirror in it
and that
mirror

looked in at
a mirror
in

me that
had a 
weed in it

Reflective I found a weed that had a mirror in it and that mirror looked in at a mirror in me that had a weed in it

A. R. Ammons

Besides the actual reading in class of many poems, I would suggest you do two things: first, while teaching everything you can and keeping free of it, teach that poetry is a mode of discourse that differs from logical exposition.

A. R. Ammons
Everything is discursive opinion instead of direct experience.

Everything is discursive opinion instead of direct experience.

A. R. Ammons
The oppressed grows weightless: doze/n th/rough c/and/or man/aged leg/ions stud/ents

The oppressed grows weightless: doze/n th/rough c/and/or man/aged leg/ions stud/ents

A. R. Ammons
Equilibrations

If you walk back
and forth

through a puddle pretty
soon

you wet the whole
driveway but of

course dry
the puddle up.

Equilibrations If you walk back and forth through a puddle pretty soon you wet the whole driveway but of course dry the puddle up.

A. R. Ammons
You came one day and
as usual in such matters
significance filled everything-
your eyes, the things you
knew, the way you turned,
leaned, stood, or sat,
this way or that.

You came one day and as usual in such matters significance filled everything- your eyes, the things you knew, the way you turned, leaned, stood, or sat, this way or that.

A. R. Ammons
A poem generated by its own laws may be unrealized and bad in terms of so-called objective principles of taste, judgement, deduction.

A poem generated by its own laws may be unrealized and bad in terms of so-called objective principles of taste, judgement, deduction.

A. R. Ammons
I can't tell you where a poem comes from, what it is, or what it is for: nor can any other man. The reason I can't tell you is that the purpose of a poem is to go past telling, to be recognised by burning.

I can't tell you where a poem comes from, what it is, or what it is for: nor can any other man. The reason I can't tell you is that the purpose of a poem is to go past telling, to be recognised by burning.

A. R. Ammons