A Quote by Rita Dove

It's the combination of the intimate and the public that I find so exciting about being poet laureate.

Rita Dove

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About Being Combination Exciting Find Intimate Laureate Poet Poet Laureate Public

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Rita Dove
American - Poet
Born: August 28, 1952

Being Poet Laureate made me realize I was capable of a larger voice. There is a more public utterance I can make as a poet.

Rita Dove

It is a tremendous honor to be named poet laureate, but one that I find humbling as well, because it's the kind of thing that makes me feel like - even as it's been bestowed upon me - I must continue to live up to what it means... Being the younger laureate in the age of social media is a new challenge.

Natasha Trethewey

What's really funny about being National Youth Poet Laureate is that not everyone even knows it exists.

Amanda Gorman

I've written on public matters, but I don't understand how anyone could tout me as a possible poet laureate when I wrote a poem on the abdication of King Charles III or about the sex life of the Royals... anybody who knew my work would know I'm not a contender.

Tony Harrison

I was appointed Poet Laureate. It came totally out of the blue because most Poet Laureates had been considerably older than I. It was not something that I even had begun to dream about!

Rita Dove

I certainly was surprised to be named Poet Laureate of this far-out city on the left side of the world, and I gratefully accept, for as I told the Mayor, "How could I refuse?" I'd rather be Poet Laureate of San Francisco than anywhere because this city has always been a poetic center, a frontier for free poetic life, with perhaps more poets and more poetry readers than any city in the world.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

The poet laureate of England talked about murdering Jews on the West Bank.

Steven T. Katz

It wasn't until I was named Youth Poet Laureate of L.A. in high school though that I officially began calling myself a poet. I just always loved writing, period.

Amanda Gorman

I am honoured to have the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of my esteemed colleague and fellow poet Mr. Dennis Lee, it will be with pride and passion that I carry forward the mandate of the Poet Laureate position for the City of Toronto and its residents.

Pier Giorgio Di Cicco

As poet laureate, I was asked to be a spokesman for literature.

Robert Hass

I would love to be the poet laureate of Coney Island.

Thornton Wilder

A poet laureate of adolescent sexuality and middle-age longing.

William A. Henry III

If you would get money as a writer or lecturer, you must be popular, which is to go down perpendicularly.... You are paid for being something less than a man. The state does not commonly reward a genius any more wisely. Even the poet laureate would rather not have to celebrate the accidents of royalty. He must be bribed with a pipe of wine; and perhaps another poet is called away from his muse to gauge that very pipe.

Henry David Thoreau

I knew if I lived long enough I would be poet laureate of something.

Patti Smith

I know some people might think it odd - unworthy even - for me to have written a cookbook, but I make no apologies. The U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins thought I had demeaned myself by writing poetry for Hallmark Cards, but I am the people's poet so I write for the people.