I lived in England for three years, and during two of those years I attended speech training classes at Peredur Centre for the Arts where I was required to memorize and recite many poems and stories. Two of my favorite poems were Samuel Taylor Coleridge's (1772-1834) The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (I memorized a section of this for a group performance.), and Kubla Khan (used as a class exercise). Following are three quotes attributed to Coleridge to help you on your way to writing this year's winning poem.
Coleridge in 1799 from a pastel by an unknown German artist:
“A poet ought not to pick nature's pocket. Let him borrow, and so borrow as to repay by the very act of borrowing. Examine nature accurately, but write from recollection, and trust more to the imagination than the memory.” ―Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Specimens of the Table Talk of S.T. Coleridge (1835).
“What if you slept, and what if in your sleep you dreamed, and what if in your dreams you went to heaven and there you plucked a strange and beautiful flower, and what if when you awoke you had the flower in your hand? Ah, what then?” -attributed to Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
"I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry; that is, prose = words in their best order, poetry = the best words in the best order." -attributed to Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
"I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry; that is, prose = words in their best order, poetry = the best words in the best order." -attributed to Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
