A poet can only write about what is true to his own experience, not about what he would like to be true to his experience.
Poetry does not state truth, it states the conditions within which something felt is true. Even while he is writing about the little portion of reality which is part of his experience, the poet may be conscious of a different reality outside. His problem is to relate the small truth to the sense of a wider, perhaps theoretically known, truth outside his experience.


Foreword - The Still Centre (1939)

Stephen Spender Quotes

A poet can only write about what is true to his own experience, not about what he would like to be true to his experience. Poetry does not state...

A poet can only write about what is true to his own experience, not about what he would like to be true to his experience. Poetry does not state...

A poet can only write about what is true to his own experience, not about what he would like to be true to his experience. Poetry does not state...

A poet can only write about what is true to his own experience, not about what he would like to be true to his experience. Poetry does not state...