Post by jeannerené on Jul 16, 2007 20:04:17 GMT -8
A collection of quotes on the nature of .... and the writing of poetry.
A poetry articulating the dreads and horrors of our time is necessary in order to make readers understand what is happening, really understand it, not just know about it but feel it: and should be accompanied by a willingness on the part of those who write it to take additional action towards stopping the great miseries which they record.
~Denise Levertov (1923-1997)
****
Most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people.
~Adrian Mitchell (1932-)
***
There exist only three beings worthy of respect: the priest, the soldier, the poet. To know, to kill, to create.
~Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867)
***
Poetry is the deification of reality.
~Edith Sitwell (1887 - 1964), Life magazine, 01-04-63
***
All slang is a metaphor, and all metaphor is poetry.
~G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936), Defendant (1901)
Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.
~G. K. Chesterton
***
I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.
~John Adams (1797-1801)
***
A poet more than thirty years old is simply an overgrown child.
~H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
***
You don't have to suffer to be a poet; adolescence is enough suffering for anyone.
~John Ciardi (1916 - 1986)
***
Poetry should please by a fine excess and not by singularity. It should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost as a remembrance.
~John Keats (1795 - 1821)
***
I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.
~Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)
***
When, however, one reads of a witch being ducked, of a woman possessed by devils, of a wise woman selling herbs, or even a very remarkable man who had a mother, then I think we are on the track of a lost novelist, a suppressed poet. . . indeed, I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.
~Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)
***
Poetry often enters through the window of irrelevance.
~M. C. Richards (1916-1999)
***
Every English poet should master the rules of grammar before he attempts to bend or break them.
~Robert Graves (1895 - 1985)
***
Poetry is about the grief. Politics is about the grievance.
~Robert Frost (1874-1963)
***
The poet judges not as a judge judges but as the sun falling around a helpless thing.
~Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)
***
A poet who reads his verse in public may have other nasty habits.
~Robert Heinlein (1907 - 1988), Time Enough for Love, 1978
***
The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.
~Jean Cocteau (1889-1963)
***
A poet is a bird of unearthly excellence, who escapes from his celestial realm arrives in this world warbling. If we do not cherish him, he spreads his wings and flies back into his homeland.
~Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931)
***
Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.
~T. S. Eliot (1888-1965)
***
A poet's autobiography is his poetry. Anything else is just a footnote.
~Yevgeny Yevtushenko (1933-)
***
Perhaps no person can be a poet, or can even enjoy poetry, without a certain unsoundness of mind.
~Thomas B. Macaulay (1800-1859)
***
Poetry heals the wounds inflicted by reason.
~Novalis (1772-1801)
***
Publishing a volume of verse is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo.
~Don Marquis (1878-1937)
***
You can tear a poem apart to see what makes it tick... You're back with the mystery of having been moved by words. The best craftsmanship always leaves holes and gaps... so that something that is not in the poem can creep, crawl, flash or thunder in.
~Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)
A poetry articulating the dreads and horrors of our time is necessary in order to make readers understand what is happening, really understand it, not just know about it but feel it: and should be accompanied by a willingness on the part of those who write it to take additional action towards stopping the great miseries which they record.
~Denise Levertov (1923-1997)
****
Most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people.
~Adrian Mitchell (1932-)
***
There exist only three beings worthy of respect: the priest, the soldier, the poet. To know, to kill, to create.
~Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867)
***
Poetry is the deification of reality.
~Edith Sitwell (1887 - 1964), Life magazine, 01-04-63
***
All slang is a metaphor, and all metaphor is poetry.
~G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936), Defendant (1901)
Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.
~G. K. Chesterton
***
I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.
~John Adams (1797-1801)
***
A poet more than thirty years old is simply an overgrown child.
~H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
***
You don't have to suffer to be a poet; adolescence is enough suffering for anyone.
~John Ciardi (1916 - 1986)
***
Poetry should please by a fine excess and not by singularity. It should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost as a remembrance.
~John Keats (1795 - 1821)
***
I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.
~Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)
***
When, however, one reads of a witch being ducked, of a woman possessed by devils, of a wise woman selling herbs, or even a very remarkable man who had a mother, then I think we are on the track of a lost novelist, a suppressed poet. . . indeed, I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.
~Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)
***
Poetry often enters through the window of irrelevance.
~M. C. Richards (1916-1999)
***
Every English poet should master the rules of grammar before he attempts to bend or break them.
~Robert Graves (1895 - 1985)
***
Poetry is about the grief. Politics is about the grievance.
~Robert Frost (1874-1963)
***
The poet judges not as a judge judges but as the sun falling around a helpless thing.
~Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)
***
A poet who reads his verse in public may have other nasty habits.
~Robert Heinlein (1907 - 1988), Time Enough for Love, 1978
***
The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.
~Jean Cocteau (1889-1963)
***
A poet is a bird of unearthly excellence, who escapes from his celestial realm arrives in this world warbling. If we do not cherish him, he spreads his wings and flies back into his homeland.
~Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931)
***
Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.
~T. S. Eliot (1888-1965)
***
A poet's autobiography is his poetry. Anything else is just a footnote.
~Yevgeny Yevtushenko (1933-)
***
Perhaps no person can be a poet, or can even enjoy poetry, without a certain unsoundness of mind.
~Thomas B. Macaulay (1800-1859)
***
Poetry heals the wounds inflicted by reason.
~Novalis (1772-1801)
***
Publishing a volume of verse is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo.
~Don Marquis (1878-1937)
***
You can tear a poem apart to see what makes it tick... You're back with the mystery of having been moved by words. The best craftsmanship always leaves holes and gaps... so that something that is not in the poem can creep, crawl, flash or thunder in.
~Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)
