W. S. Merwin Quotes

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W. S. Merwin

Profession : Poet

Birth : September 30, 1927

The Arab world is erupting, which is extraordinary, and to see it happen is like watching rings spreading on a pool - it goes out; it varies so much. The spontaneity is wonderful, but very often, if it's not well organized, it breaks up, and it peters out.

W. S. Merwin

Jeffersonian democracy, faulty as it is, and only the fragment of it that we have, is a thing of such preciousness, a thing of such value.

W. S. Merwin

Democracy's got endless problems and faults and dangers, but it's certain the alternatives are not better.

W. S. Merwin

What a great poem teaches you - and it's not intellectual at all - is the resonance in the language that's heard there. This goes back to the very origins of poetry and to the very origins of language.

W. S. Merwin

I think poetry is as old as language, and both come out of the same thing - an effort to try to express something that is inexpressible.

W. S. Merwin