Frank O'Hara
Frank O'Hara
(27 March 1926 – 25 July 1966 / Baltimore, Maryland)
Poems by Frank O'Hara : 51 / 52
Why I Am Not A Painter - Poem by Frank O'Hara
I am not a painter, I am a poet.
Why? I think I would rather be
a painter, but I am not. Well,
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Comments about Why I Am Not A Painter by Frank O'Hara
Frank O'Hara's Other Poems
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Phenomenal Woman
Maya Angelou
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Still I Rise
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The Road Not Taken
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If You Forget Me
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Dreams
Langston Hughes
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Annabel Lee
Edgar Allan Poe
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Caged Bird
Maya Angelou
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If
Rudyard Kipling
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Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
Robert Frost
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A Dream Within A Dream
Edgar Allan Poe
Yes. That's the way it is. It comes and goes. (Report) Reply
This poem illustrates how Frank O'Hara has a major place in a line of American poetry: free verse = Walt Whitman, Wm Carlos Williams, Allen Ginsburg, Frank O'Hara, Charles Bukowski. These poets reject traditional poetic forms as often being artificial. They also have stood out against Modernism (and much postmodernism) as being academic, elitist, and inaccessible to literate readers. This is not one of my favorite O'Hara poems, but it is one of the most often anthologized.
And, by the way, Elias and Patrick, O'Hara's sexual orientation and relationships are irrelevant to this poem - though this is not always the case. So? (Report) Reply
i really dont understand this at all, but I like the name. I have wondered why I am not a painter...being a writer instead, i never found the answer nor understood why i chose to let myself and my feelings out through words instead of a brush. Interesting thought but i seriously dont like the poem at all. (Report) Reply
Nice. I played an imaginary background theme song as I read. (Report) Reply
Perplexing but it shakes you up.
I think this poem tries to express the different moments of creativity and how the creative spirit takes over regardless and in spite of the wishes of the creator.
Different and interesting. Provokes a new poetic sensation (Report) Reply
The poem I likes much due to its peculiar theme in sadness and expression of sadness and such things it is beautifully expressed in the poem. (Report) Reply
paintings, poems, music....these are all forms of creative expression...this poem puts it so beautifully... (Report) Reply
Wonderful poem and beautiful expression of feelings and emotions. (Report) Reply
Wow, this is awesome! ! ! ! :) (Report) Reply
An abstract expressionist poem. (Report) Reply