"The figure a poem makes. It begins in delight and ends in a clarification of life—not necessarily a great clarification, such as Lowell or Emerson or Wordsworth might have given, but a momentary stay …"

"Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offense."

"I may not be a great poet, but I'm a hell of a good farmer."

"You come too. My long scythe whispered and left the hay to make. You come too."

"I never ask of a pupil who has written a poem, 'What does it mean?' I always ask, 'How did you arrive at that?'"