approaching simplicity

"poetry can seem, as a medium, to resist simplicity. pattern loves its intricacies, and verbal patterning in particular has a tendency to intoxicate the unwary composer before and sometimes instead of its audience. part of mastery, then, must always concern restraint: when to attempt simplicity-with the attendant risk of being thought simple-and, just as crucially, when not to."

- w. n. herbert