Q: Could you comment on the need for a
creative writer to master English grammar?
A: I find that somewhat difficult to discuss in the same way
that I'd have difficulty explaining why a composer of music ought to
know the scales and harmony or why a painter ought to know the
spectrum. Ignorance is never a virtue; ignorance of the basic
elements in one's own field may occur, but surely not as a deliberate
option.
Q: Do you believe that poets are the unacknowledged statesmen
of the world -- stress on unacknowledged? If so, how can this be
changed -- or should/could it be?
A: When Shelley called poets "the unacknowledged legislators
of the world," he was trying to promote poets to a higher rank in the
eyes of the population, to whom the move would be like going from the
House to the Senate. The fact of the matter is that most every
legislator has a lot to learn from poets, who know -- as most
legislators don't -- that how a thing is said is at least as
important as what's being said. This is why John Ciardi and I called
our textbook How Does a Poem Mean? Most people elected to go
to Washington wouldn't even understand the title.
Q: What is the most complicated, tricky line of poetry you've
ever read and that you've ever written? (-- syntactical gymnastics,
in other words)
A: I'll have to default on [this] question. I have
only so much room in my head, and it's equipped with a very good
forgettory so that what doesn't work right doesn't stay around and
take up room. This serves me well, incidentally, in matters having
nothing to do with poetry.
Miller Williams is the author, editor, or translator of thirty books, including fourteen volumes of poetry. Recognition for his work has included the Amy Lowell Traveling Scholarship in Poetry from Harvard University, the Prix de Rome for Literature and the Academy Award for Literature, both from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Poets' Prize, the Charity Randall Citation for Contribution to Poetry as a Spoken Art from the International Poetry Forum, the John William Corrington Award for Excellence in Literature, honorary doctorates from Lander College and Hendrix College, and designation as a member of The Circle of Distinguished Citizens of the World by the Trilussa Center of Rome. He was inaugural poet for the second presidential inauguration of Bill Clinton. His Patterns of Poetry: An Encyclopedia of Forms is a standard in the field. A collection of essays on his work, Miller Williams and the Poetry of the Particular, edited by Michael Burns, is available from the University of Missouri Press. A multi-national board of the journal Visions International has named Williams one of the world's twenty best poets now writing in English, and his poems are included on a CD from Roth Publishing Company entitled Poetry of Our Time, featuring work by the world's 500 best poets of the twentieth century in all languages, as selected by an advisory board of teachers, librarians, and writers. The body of his best poetry over the years, gathered under the title Some Jazz A While: The Collected Poems, was recently released by the University of Illinois Press.
As interesting asides, Williams took his academic degrees in the sciences after a college counselor during his freshman year told him that according to the school's entrance tests Williams had no verbal aptitude and that, if he didn't want to embarrass his parents he should change his major from English to one of the hard sciences. He was working on his doctorate in human physiology and had taught biological science on the college level for a dozen years when LSU, on the basis of his literary publications, offered him a position in their English department. He is presently University Professor of English and Foreign Languages at the University of Arkansas, where he founded the University of Arkansas Press. As a young man he played clarinet and C-melody sax in a jazz combo. He's the father of two-time grammy award-winning singer and songwriter Lucinda Williams.
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