POETRY QUOTES IV

quotations about poetry

I string sounds together. But to string them I have to remember a bunch of old ones I heard somewhere and then juggle them into a new rhythm and shape.

FRANK LOESSER

letter to Angel Steinbeck, A Most Remarkable Fella: Frank Loesser and the Guys and Dolls in His Life

Tags: Frank Loesser


There has never been a great poet who wasn't also a great reader of poetry.

EDWARD HIRSCH

interview, 2007

Tags: Edward Hirsch


You speak
As one who fed on poetry.

EDWARD BULWER-LYTTON

Richelieu

Tags: Edward Bulwer Lytton


I think it was rather an advantage not having any living poets in England or America in whom one took any particular interest. I don't know what it would be like but I think it would be a rather troublesome distraction to have such a lot of dominating presences, as you call them, about. Fortunately we weren't bothered by each other.

T. S. ELIOT

The Paris Review, spring-summer 1959

Tags: T. S. Eliot


A lot of being a poet consists of willed ignorance. If you woke up from your trance and realized the nature of the life-threatening and dignity-destroying precipice you were walking along, you would switch into actuarial sciences immediately.

MARGARET ATWOOD

On Writing Poetry

Tags: Margaret Atwood


We feel poetry as we feel the closeness of a woman, or as we feel a mountain or a bay. If we feel it immediately, why dilute it with other words, which no doubt will be weaker than our feelings?

JORGE LUIS BORGES

"Poetry"

Tags: Jorge Luis Borges


From my earliest sense of self, I knew that I would be--should be--a poet. It was not as if I had a choice; more like the dying beauty all about breathed its last breath in me and commanded that I be doomed to play with words the rest of my days.

DAN SIMMONS

Hyperion

Tags: Dan Simmons


My poetry was born between the hill and the river, it took its voice from the rain, and like the timber, it steeped itself in the forests.

PABLO NERUDA

Memoirs

Tags: Pablo Neruda


The crown of literature is poetry.

MATTHEW ARNOLD

Essays in Criticism, Second Series

Tags: Matthew Arnold


Poetry is God's work.

KATY LEDERER

"An Interview with Katy Lederer", Thermos Magazine, January 21, 2010

Tags: Katy Lederer


A long poem is a test of invention which I take to be the Polar star of poetry, as fancy is the sails, and imagination the rudder.

JOHN KEATS

letter to Benjamin Bailey, October 8, 1817

Tags: John Keats


Poetry might be defined as the clear expression of mixed feelings.

W. H. AUDEN

New Year Letter

Tags: W. H. Auden


For verses and poems I can turn to true food.

ST. AUGUSTINE

Confessions

Tags: St. Augustine


No wonder poets sometimes have to seem
So much more businesslike than businessmen.
Their wares are so much harder to get rid of.

ROBERT FROST

"New Hampshire"

Tags: Robert Frost


I approach poetry and spirituality like literary nitroglycerin -- a little can do a lot and you better damn well be careful with it.

CRAIG JOHNSON

"A Conversation with Craig Johnson", The Cold Dish

Tags: Craig Johnson


No doubt Plato's notion that poets should chant nothing but hymns to the Gods and praises of virtue is a little narrow and exacting, but if they are to sing songs worthy of themselves, and of mankind, they must be on the side of virtue and of the Gods.

ALFRED AUSTIN

The Bridling of Pegasus

Tags: Alfred Austin


We make out of the quarrel with others, rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves, poetry.

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

"Anima Hominis", Per Amica Silentia Lunae

Tags: William Butler Yeats


Some people pretend they never were in love and never wrote poetry; two weaknesses which they dare not own -- one of the heart, the other of the mind.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of the Affections", Les Caractères

Tags: Jean de La Bruyere


Such is the role of poetry. It unveils, in the strict sense of the word. It lays bare, under a light which shakes off torpor, the surprising things which surround us and which our senses record mechanically.

JEAN COCTEAU

"Le Secret Professionnel", A Call to Order

Tags: Jean Cocteau


None knows the reason why this curse
Was sent on him, this love of making verse.

HORACE

Ars Poetica

Tags: Horace