2005-09-09 - 12:02 p.m.
Most writers complain of a difficuly in uniting their minds for full creative work by an act of will. Shelley speaks, for example, of the futility of anyone's saying to himself: "I will compose peotry." Doubtless on the very top levels-Dante, Shakespeare, Goethe-this difficulty is at a minimum. But many of those who find it easy to write by an act of conscious will are those who are primarily concerned to say wha is most readily acceptable in their cultural surroundings- in other words they are hack writers. Poets who can at will produce verse on approved moral, religious or patriotic themes seldom make a deep impression on the history of literature.
pg. 51-52
