Quotes About Poetry

Lovers meander in prose and rhyme, trying to say- for the thousandth time- what's easier done than said.

I have many swift arrows in my quiver which speak to the wise, but for the crowd they need interpreters. The skilled poet is one who knows much through natural gift, but those who have learned their art chatter turbulently, vainly, against the divine bird of Zeus.

What a poor appearance the tales of poets make when stripped of the colors which music puts upon them, and recited in simple prose

It is vain for the sober man to knock at poesy's door.

Poetry comes nearer to vital truth than history.

Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.

Both stand charged with the rape of women; neither of them could avoid domestic misfortunes nor jealousy at home; but towards the close of their lives are both of them said to have incurred great odium with their countrymen, if, that is, we may take the stories least like poetry as our guide to the truth.

If we compare Sappho's poems with Anakreon's or the Sibyl's oracles with the prophet Bakis, then it is clear that the art of poetry or of prophecy is not one art practiced by men and another when practiced by women. It is the same. Can anyone protest this conclusion?

Painting is silent poetry.

Leonard is saying, 'Whenever I hear that a guy writes poetry I feel close to him. You know, I understand the folly.

while cleverness is appropriate to rhetoric, and inventiveness to poetry, truth alone is appropriate to history.

if you memorize three hundred Tang poems, you might be able to write a little.

According to our Tang dynasty poet Du Fu, people do not write well when they are happy. If you are content with life, you simply want to enjoy it.

You can't write poetry on the computer.

the silence Holds with its gloved hand The wild hawk of the mind.

Adjectives are the potbelly of poetry.

Malcolm Lowry Late of the Bowery His prose was flowery And often glowery He lived, nightly, and drank, daily, And died playing the ukulele

Le melodie ascoltate sono dolci, ma più dolci ancora sono quelle inascoltate, scrisse Keats. Nessuna perdita viene avvertita più profondamente della perdita di ciò che sarebbe potuto essere. Nessuna nostalgia fa male quanto la nostalgia per le cose che non sono mai esistite.

The young student sits with his head bent over his books, and his mind straying in youth's dreamland; where prose is prowling on the desk and poetry hiding in the heart.

The speech of my heart will be carried on in murmurings of a song.

It is the pang of separation that spreads throughout the world and gives birth to shapes innumerable in the infinite sky. It is this sorrow of separation that gazes in silence all nights from star to star and becomes lyric among rustling leaves in rainy darkness of July. It is this overspreading pain that deepens into loves and desires, into sufferings and joy in human homes; and this it is that ever melts and flows in songs through my poet's heart.

Clothed in facts truth feels oppressed. In the garb of poetry it moves easy and free.

I'll be the cloud and you the moon. I'll cover you with both hands, And our roof will be the sky.

I have never been able to make out," I began, "why women are so shy about being caught reading poetry. We men--lawyers, mechanics, or what not--may well feel ashamed. If we must read poetry, it should be at dead of night, within closed doors. But you women are so akin to poesy. The Creator Himself is a lyric poet, and Jayadeva must have practised the divine art seated at His feet.