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Duty Quotes

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Duty Quotes

“O brave poets, keep back nothing; Nor mix falsehood with the whole! Look up Godward! speak the truth in Worthy song from earnest soul! Hold, in high poetic duty, Truest Truth the fairest Beauty.”

Looks Soul Whole Song Speak Poet Duty Brave Worthy Look Up Poetic Falsehood Earnest Truest Speak The Truth

Book:A Selection from the Poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Source: A Selection from the Poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning

“The Poet's License! 't is the right, Within the rule of duty, To look on all delightful things Throughout the world of beauty. To gaze with rapture at the stars That in the skies are glowing; To see the gems of perfect dye That in the woods are growing, And more than sage astronomer, And more than learned florist, To read the glorious homilies Of Firmament and Forest.”

World Looks Stars Perfect Growing Sky Poet Duty Woods Forests Glorious Delightful Sage License Glowing Rapture Gems Astronomers Firmament Delightful Things

Book:The Masquerade: And Other Poems

Source: The Masquerade: And Other Poems

“I am an ordinary human being who is impelled to write poetry. ... I still do feel that a poet has a duty to words, and that words can do wonderful things, and it's too bad to just let them lie there without doing anything with and for them.”

Feels Writing Humans Stills Lying Can Do Human Beings Wonderful Poet Duty Ordinary Wonderful Things

Author:Gwendolyn Brooks

“If a poet has any obligation toward society, it is to write well. Being in the minority, he has no other choice. Failing this duty, he sinks into oblivion. Society, on the other hand, has no obligation toward the poet.”

Ifs Writing Wells Hands Choices Failing Poet Duty Obligation Well Being Minorities Oblivion

Author:Joseph Brodsky

“A poet, qua poet, has only one political duty, namely, in his own writing to set an example of the correct use of his mother tongue, which is always being corrupted. When words lose their meaning, physical force takes over.”

Writing Use Political Mother Force Loses Example Poet Duty Tongue Mother Tongue Physical Force

Author:W. H. Auden

“The duty of a lyrical poet is not to express or explain, it is to intensify life.”

Poet Duty Lyrical

Book:The Poems of James Stephens

Source: The Poems of James Stephens

“I secretly assumed, as poets do, The duty on me to define the moon.”

Book:Dreamtigers

Source: Dreamtigers

“I suppose every poet has his own private mythology. Maybe he's unaware of it. People tell me that I have evolved a private mythology of tigers, of blades, of labyrinths, and I"m unaware of the fact this is so. My readers are finding it all the time. But I think perhaps that is the duty of poet.”

People Thinking Poet Duty Mythology Tigers Labyrinth

Author:Jorge Luis Borges

“As a poet, there is only one political duty, and that is to defend one's language from corruption.”

Political Language Poet Duty Corruption

Author:W. H. Auden

“To evade such temptations is the first duty of the poet. For as the ear is the antechamber to the soul, poetry can adulterate and destroy more surely then lust or gunpowder. The poet's, then, is the highest office of all. His words reach where others fall short. A silly song of Shakespeare's has done more for the poor and the wicked than all the preachers and philanthropists in the world.”

World Firsts Soul Done Song Fall Poor Poet Duty Office Highest Ears Silly Lust Temptation Wicked Preacher Philanthropist Gunpowder

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Virginia Woolf (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Virginia Woolf (Illustrated)