I have no more right to the name of a poet than a maker of mousetraps has to that of an engineer.
Poetry Quotes
Laurel, n. The “laurus”, a vegetable dedicated to Apollo, and formerly defoliated to wreathe the brows of victors and such poets as had influence at court. (“Vide supra.”)
It is the inexplicable presence of the thing not named, of the overtone divined by the ear, but not heard by it, the verbal mood, the emotional aura of the fact or the thing or the deed, that gives high quality to the novel or drama, as well to the poetry itself.
Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot, which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie.
What poets mean by what they mean Is tougher than it’s ever been.
Rimer, n. A poet regarded with indifference or disesteem.
True poets should be chaste, I know, But wherefore should their lines be so?
Poetry is not a career, but a mug game. No honest poet can ever feel quite sure of the permanent value of what he has written; he may have wasted his time and messed up his life for nothing.
A prose writer gets tired of writing prose, and wants to be a poet. So he begins every line with a capital letter, and keeps on writing prose.
Rime, n. Agreeing sounds in the terminals of verse, mostly bad. The verses themselves, as distinguished from prose, mostly dull. Usually (and wickedly) spelled “rhyme.”
