I much preferred Latin to Greek. I loved the language being such a pattern that you could not shift a word without the whole sentence falling to pieces. Alice Oswald fallgreeklanguage Change image and share on social
I really think there are spirits in a place that you have to accommodate. Alice Oswald accommodateplacespirit Change image and share on social
It's a question of trying to take down by dictation what's already there. I'm not making something, I'm trying to hear it. Alice Oswald dictationhearmake Change image and share on social
There's a whole range of words that people use about landscape. Pastoral? Idyll? I can't stand them. Alice Oswald idylllandscapepastoral Change image and share on social
One of the rules of Greek lament poetry is that it mustn't mention the dead by name in case of invoking a ghost. Maybe the 'Iliad,' crowded with names, is more than a poem. Maybe it's a dangerous piece of the brightness of both this world and the next. Alice Oswald brightnesscasecrowd share on social
To be a poet is as serious, long-term and natural as the effort to be the best human you can be. To express something well is not a question of having a top-class education and understanding poetic forms: rather, it's a question of paying attention. Alice Oswald attentionclasseducation share on social
When the wind blows through a wood, its mass is cut and closed by every leaf, forming a train of jittery vortices in the air. Alice Oswald airblowclose Change image and share on social
People are so used to reading novels now, they just read a poem straight through to get the meaning. And that's something totally different from the slow way you read something if it's a tune; which to me a poem has to be. Alice Oswald meannovelpeople share on social
A living tree is a changing, sleeve shape, a wet, thin, bright green creature that survives in the thin layer between heartwood and bark. It stands waiting for light, which it catches in the close-woven sieves of its leaves. Alice Oswald barkbrightcatch share on social
The sea has this contradictory quality, that the more you see of it, the more it overwhelms the eye and disappears in its own brightness. Like a flame, whose meaning is light but whose centre is dark, it demands to be undefined. Alice Oswald brightnesscentrecontradictory share on social
