O friend unseen, unborn, unknown, Student of our sweet English tongue, I never indulge in poetics – Unless I am down with rheumatics.
Poetry Quotes
Poetry is not a profession, it is a destiny.
To the poet, to the philosopher, to the saint, all things are friendly and sacred, all events profitable, all days holy, all men divine.
Serious poetry today is chiefly an academic matter, a cult interest, presided over by teacher-priests, village explainers, to a transient audience of students, who, once out of the university, never have to deal with it again, and usually don’t.
He who finds elevated and lofty pleasure in the feeling of poetry is a true poet, though he never composed a line of verse in his entire lifetime.
The poets made all the words, and therefore language is the archives of history, and, if we must say it, a sort of tomb of the muses. For though the origin of most of our words is forgotten, each word was at first a stroke of genius.
As a poet, Nash works under two disadvantages: he is a humorist, and he is easy to understand.
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)
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.
