A. R. Ammons

Poet

1926-02-18 – 2001-02-25

American poet and professor associated with late 20th-century American poetry and the Transcendentalist tradition. He taught for many years at Cornell University and received major literary honors including multiple National Book Awards. His work often blended natural observation with philosophical reflection.

Books by A. R. Ammons

Prentice Hall Literature--Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes--The American Experience
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Prentice Hall Literature -- Platinum
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The selected poems
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Quotes by A. R. Ammons

Is it not careless to become too local when there are four hundred billion stars in our galaxy alone.
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Even if you walk exactly the same route each time - as with a sonnet - the events along the route cannot be imagined to be the same from day to day, as the poet's health, sight, his anticipations, moods, fears, thoughts cannot be the same.
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If the greatest god is the stillness all the motions add up to, then we must ineluctably be included.
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Poetry leads us to the unstructured sources of our beings, to the unknown, and returns us to our rational, structured selves refreshed.
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Once every five hundred years or so, a summary statement about poetry comes along that we can't imagine ourselves living without.
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I am grateful for - though I can't keep up with - the flood of articles, theses, and textbooks that mean to share insight concerning the nature of poetry.
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There's something to be said in favor of working in isolation in the real world.
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If we ask a vague question, such as, 'What is poetry?' we expect a vague answer, such as, 'Poetry is the music of words,' or 'Poetry is the linguistic correction of disorder.'
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