The right reader of a good poem can tell the moment it strikes him that he has taken an immortal wound—that he will never get over it.

Robert Frost · The source reads: “It is absurd to think that the only way to tell if a poem is lasting is to wait and see if it lasts. The right reader of a good poem can tell the moment it strikes him that he has taken an immortal wound—that he will never get over it.” · The Poetry of Amy Lowell, Christian Science Monitor (May 16, 1925)

Families break up when people take hints you don't intend and miss hints you do intend.

Robert Frost · Paris Review interview (1960)

Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting.

Robert Frost · The source reads: “Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting.… Read it a hundred times; it will forever keep its freshness as a metal keeps its fragrance. It can never lose its sense of a meaning that once unfolded by surprise as it went.” · Collected Poems (1939), preface

The right reader of a good poem can tell the moment it strikes him that he has taken an immortal wound—that he will never get over it.

Families break up when people take hints you don't intend and miss hints you do intend.

Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting.

Education is hanging around until you've caught on.

So long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this cannot be useless.

"The king died and then the queen died" is a story. "The king died and then the queen died of grief" is a plot.

My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary.

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“The right reader of a good poem can tell the moment it strikes him that he has taken an immortal wound—that he will never get over it.”

“Families break up when people take hints you don't intend and miss hints you do intend.”

“Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting.”

“Education is hanging around until you've caught on.”

“So long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this cannot be useless.”

“"The king died and then the queen died" is a story. "The king died and then the queen died of grief" is a plot.”

“My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary.”

We Value Your Opinion Comments

The right reader of a good poem can tell the moment it strikes him that he has taken an immortal wound—that he will never get over it.

Families break up when people take hints you don't intend and miss hints you do intend.

Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting.

Education is hanging around until you've caught on.

So long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this cannot be useless.

"The king died and then the queen died" is a story. "The king died and then the queen died of grief" is a plot.

My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary.