“I will ask you only one thing, reader: to pronounce my verses well and fit your voice to their passion, and not read them in the manner of a letter.”

Original: Je te supliray seulement d'une chose, lecteur, de vouloir bien prononcer mes vers et accomoder ta voix à leur passion, et non comme quelques uns les lisent, plustost à la façon d'une missive. — Verse meant to be spoken with feeling, not scanned like prose · Preface to La Franciade (French)

• Poetry
• Reading
• Voice

“You have something to say, something that no one else in the world has said in just your way of saying it.”

Originality as a manner of saying rather than a new subject · Teaching books, commonly cited

• Originality
• Voice
• Writing

“The poet is primarily a spokesman, making statements or incantations on behalf of himself or others — usually for both.”

Self and community are hard to separate in the act of speaking · Essay, Modern Poetry: A Personal Essay (1938)

• Community
• Poetry
• Voice