Effort at Speech Quotes

“Right words are born in courage, which results from our struggle to make sense of our various predicaments. Cheer is what words are "trying to tell us/... It's native to the words/and what they want us always to know/even when it seems quite impossible to do.”
― William Meredith, Effort at Speech: New and Selected Poems

“What would you call his feeling for the words
That keep him rich and orphaned and beloved?”
― William Meredith, Effort at Speech: New and Selected Poems