Well, I had a couple. I had a couple teachers who did inspire me. One was this eleventh grade English teacher — eleventh and twelfth grade. She and I, we still have tea together sometimes today. I was frightened before I went into her class. I heard she was a battle axe. I heard that she would flunk you if you split an infinitive. And it’s true. She would, but she also would tell you what a split infinitive was, and then once you knew, you never did it again. She just opened up to me, how language — how the written word — can also sing. And she spent, I remember once, 45 minutes on one page: the first page of a novel. By the end of the class, no one had taken down a single note, because we were absolutely enthralled. It was incredible.
Managed profile
Not claimed by Rita Dove
Rita Dove has not joined FLAPSS and has not endorsed it. This page is a reference record assembled from published interviews and public remarks. Every answer below is a direct quotation with the source and date shown next to it.
RD
Rita Dove
Poet; Poet Laureate of the United States, 1993-1995; Pulitzer Prize for Poetry 1987
United States · b. 1952
Arts and letters
Won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1987 for Thomas and Beulah, a sequence about her grandparents, and was appointed Poet Laureate of the United States in 1993, the youngest person and the first African American to hold the post.
1 answer 0 followers reference
Every quotation above is reproduced from the source shown beside it and has not been edited. Rita Dove did not write these answers for FLAPSS. Request a correction or removal.