Quotes About Poetry

The Athanasian Creed is the most splendid ecclesiastical lyric ever poured forth by the genius of man.

To know how to say what other people only think, is what makes poets and sages; and to dare to say what others only dare to think, makes men martyrs or reformers.

A man may be variously accomplished, and yet be a feeble poet.

Well, yes: people write poems when they are in love, but a wise man will not print them.

As naturally as the oak bears an acorn and the vine a gourd, man bears a poem, either spoken or done.

Good poetry seems so simple and natural a thing that when we meet it we wonder that all men are not always poets. Poetry is nothing but healthy speech.

The nerds are my favourite sort of boys - any guy with a passion - whether it be physics or film or writing or poetry even, I think it's super sweet and it's very attractive for a female.

True poets might not so much sing about their love as love in order to sing.

Browsing the dim back corner Of a musty antique shop Opened an old book of poetry Angels flew out from the pages I caught the whiff of a soul The ink seemed fresh as today Was that voices whispering? The tree of the paper still grows.

The smell of ink is intoxicating to me — others may have wine, but I have poetry.

Love letters and poems aren't the least bit difficult to write, if you write directly from your heart into the ink and don't channel through your brain first.

In Phoenix summer is the title, the refrain, And every other verse.

A sold poem loses half its meaning.

How many stanzas in the springtime breeze? How plenty the raindrops? As He doth please. There is no meter and there is no rhyme, Yet God's poems always read in perfect time.

Happiness is sharing a bowl of cherries and a book of poetry with a shade tree.

The moon quotes the sun, the rivers quote the trees, and trees quote the breeze.

Your prayer can be poetry, and poetry can be your prayer.

If you've got a poem within you today, I can guarantee you a tomorrow.

Although I've written a few (a very few) poems over the years, I am not a natural poet...and I remain in awe of people who are. The ability to evoke deep emotion, reveal a new facet of the world, or condense an entire story into the limited space and form of a poem (or likewise, of a good song lyric, or the text for a children's picture book) seems like pure magic to me.

Most poetry in the modern age has retreated to the private sphere, turning its back on the political realm.

Poetry is the most subtle of the literary arts, and students grow more ingenious by the year at avoiding it. If they can nip around Milton, duck under Blake and collapse gratefully into the arms of Jane Austen, a lot of them will.

The most common mistake students of literature make is to go straight for what the poem or novel says, setting aside the way that it says it. To read like this is to set aside the 'literariness' of the work – the fact that it is a poem or play or novel, rather than an account of the incidence of soil erosion in Nebraska.

That's what poems are for, unlivable love." epigraph to "In Lilac-Light

Heart, you are only the shell of a confessed desire wondering what to do next. — Tess Gallagher, from "Because the Dream is My Tenderest Arm," Midnight Lantern: New and Selected Poems (Graywolf Press, 2011)