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George Oppen Quotes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

George Oppen
Honesty, Firsts, Honest

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

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