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'Reading other poetry aloud'

15 January 2018

'T. S. Eliot said to me "There's only one way a poet can develop his actual writing - apart from self-criticism & continual practice. And that is by reading other poetry aloud - and it doesn't matter whether he understands it or not (i.e. even if it is in another language.) What matters, above all, is educating the ear."

What matters, is to connect your own voice within an infinite range of verbal cadences & sequences - and only endless actual experience of your ear can store all that is in your nervous system. The rest can be left to your life & your character.'

Ted Hughes, giving advice to his 18 year-old daughter Frieda on becoming a poet