The occasional poet is circumscribed by the narrowness of his subject. Whatever can happen to man has happened so often, that little remains for fancy or invention. We have been all born; we have most of us been married; and so many have died before us, that our deaths can supply but few materials for […]
Poetry Quotes
I never wrote one single Line of Poetry with the least Shadow of public thought.
Poetry is something to make us wiser and better, by continually revealing those types of beauty and truth, which God has set in all men’s souls.
The characteristick quality of his poem is sublimity. He sometimes descends to the elegant, but his element is the great. He can occasionally invest himself with grace; but his natural port is gigantick loftiness. He can please when pleasure is required, but it is his peculiar power to astonish.
When power leads man towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. For art establishes the basic human truth which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment.
Poetry is not made out of the understanding. The question of common sense is always, “What is it good for?” A question would abolish a rose, and be triumphantly answered by the cabbage.
Knowledge of the subject is to the poet what durable materials are to the architect.
Poetry is probably the one field of writing in which it is a mistake to try to psych out editors. In fact, specific marketing advice can sometimes harm the novice poet by enticing him to pursue fashions. The poet’s best hope is to sound like nobody else, The finest, most enduring poetry constructs a marketplace […]
Hebrew poetry comprises almost 50% of the Old Testament. Hebrew poetry differs from English poetry in that the emphasis is on parallel thoughts, where in English poetry the emphasis is on rhyme and meter. This correspondence of thought in Hebrew poetry is called parallelism. It is the distinguishing mark the Hebrew poet. Each line has […]
To tell of disappointment and misery, to thicken the darkness of futurity, and perplex the labyrinth of uncertainty, has been always a delicious employment of the poets.
