“I am not a poet. I am a historian.”

Presenting his poetry as a record of historical experience and consciousness · Conversation, as reported in biographical accounts

• Memory
• Poetry
• Time

“I am a poet of old age.”

A concise description of his recurring concern with maturity, memory and mortality · Conversation / interview, as commonly reported

• Age
• Memory
• Mortality

“I have tried to write about things which are not entirely foreign to me.”

Emphasizing lived experience as the basis of artistic truth · Prose statement on his poetic method

• Art
• Memory
• Truth