Upon Further Reflection. Chapter 9:How to Discover What You Have to Say: A Talk to Students. Quote 21

“In a paper called “On ‘Having’ a Poem,” I compared a poet to a mother. Although the mother bears the child and we call it her child, she is not responsible for any of its features. She gave it half of its genes, but she got those from her parents. I argued that the same thing could be said of the poet.” (p. 140)