Thomson had a true poetical genius, the power of viewing every thing in a poetical light. His fault is such a cloud of words sometimes, that the sense can hardly peep through. Shiels, who compiled ‘Cibber’s Lives of the Poets,’ was one day sitting with me. I took down Thomson, and read aloud a large […]
Poetry Quotes
Sad is the lot, who, once at least in his life, had not been a poet.
Perhaps no person can be a poet, or even can enjoy poetry, without a certain unsoundness of mind.
I could no more define poetry than a terrier can define a rat.
You must have a certain amount of maturity to be a poet. Seldom do sixteen-year-olds know themselves well enough.
Prose on certain occasions can bear a great deal of poetry; on the other hand, poetry sinks and swoons under a moderate weight of prose.
Do not ever read books about versification: no poet ever learnt it that way. If you are going to be a poet, it will come to you naturally and you will pick up all you need from reading poetry.
You will not find poetry anywhere unless you bring some of it with you.
I am not sure, once a poet has found out what has been written already, and how it was written – once, in short, he has learnt his trade – that he should bother with literature at all. Poetry is not like surgery, a technique that can be copied. Every operation the poet performs is […]
A poem is no place for an idea.
