Three poets in three different ages born, Greece, Italy, and England did adorn. The first in loftiness of soul surpassed, The next in majesty, in both the last. The force of nature could no further go; To make a third she joined the other two. (Milton – the other two were Homer and Virgil)
Poetry Quotes
The sign and credentials of the poet are that he announces that which no man foretold.
The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.
The poet John Keats wrote that understanding poetry required that we must be willing to put ourselves in a special state of mind, which Keats called “negative capability.” He described this state as one in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts; without any irritable reaching after facts and reason.
The experience of each new age requires a new confession, and the world seems always waiting for its poet.
The writing of a poem is like a child throwing stones into a mineshaft. You compose first, then you listen for the reverberation.
Correct English is the slang of prigs who write history and essays. And the strongest stand of all is the slang of poets.
There was never a poet who had not the heart in the right place.
Poetry is either something that lives like fire inside you like music to the musician… or else it is nothing, an empty, formalized bore around which pedants can endlessly drone their notes and explanations.
Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better.
