Poetry Quotes

Fainthearted animals move about in herds. The lion walks alone in the desert. Let the poet always walk thus.

I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.

The works of the great poets have never yet been read by mankind, for only great poets can read them.

Verses, which do not teach men new and moving truths, do not deserve to be read.

A poet can survive everything but a misprint.

The art of life, of a poet’s life, is, not having anything to do, to do something.

One merit of poetry few persons will deny; it says more, and in few words, than prose.

All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.

Good poetry seems too simple and natural a thing that when we meet it we wonder that all men are not always poets. Poetry is nothing but healthy speech.

If you know what you are going to write when you’re writing a poem, it’s going to be average.