Poetry Quotes

"Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words."

"Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility."

"Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before."

"When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses."

"Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance."

"Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks."

"If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches; for the Creator, there is no poverty."

"Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash."

"The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese."

"Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary."

"The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth."

"Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things."

"I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean."

"Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history."

"Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world."

"If you cannot be a poet, be the poem."

"A poem is never finished, only abandoned."

"A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language."

"Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn."

"No poems can please for long or live that are written by water drinkers."

"Poetry should surprise by a fine excess and not by singularity, it should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance."

"I have nothing to say, I am saying it, and that is poetry."

"Poetry heals the wounds inflicted by reason."

"In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite."

"Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful."

"The crown of literature is poetry."

"Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth."

"You will find poetry nowhere unless you bring some of it with you."

"Each memorable verse of a true poet has two or three times the written content."

"If you read quickly to get through a poem to what it means, you have missed the body of the poem."