“All right, but that is not Poetry with a big P, and that is the only…” — Arthur Macy

“All right, but that is not Poetry with a big P, and that is the only kind that should be published. And there is mighty little of it.”

Expresses Macy's unusually severe standards for his own poetry and for publication · Conversation, recalled by William Alfred Hovey in Introduction to Poems (1905)

Arthur Macy

About Arthur Macy

6 June 1842–1 June 1904

Arthur Macy (June 6, 1842 – June 1, 1904) emerged as a distinctive voice in 19th-century American poetry, blending Quaker sensibility with a soldier’s grit and a businessman’s pragmatism. Born on Nantucket Island to Oliver C. Macy and Phebe Fowler Macy, descendants of Thomas Macy—the Quaker leader who famously…

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Poems by Arthur Macy

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“Don't talk baseball to him. He don't care anything about it, he don't know anything about it, and he don't want to.”

Shows Macy's quick wit and his impatience with conversation that bored others · Conversation, recalled by William Alfred Hovey in Introduction to Poems (1905)

“Some of them have and some of them haven't.”

A wounded Macy's dry reply when asked whether the men in the hospital had arms · Gettysburg anecdote, recorded by William Alfred Hovey in Introduction to Poems (1905)

“I'm coming round soon for a good long gam.”

A characteristically Nantucket expression for a long friendly conversation · Conversation, recalled by William Alfred Hovey in Introduction to Poems (1905)

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Arthur Macy — a remark

About Arthur Macy

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