“And thus, in full, there are four classes: the men who feel nothing, and therefore see truly; the men who feel strongly, think weakly, and see untruly (second order of poets); the men who feel strongly, think strongly, and see truly (first order of poets); and the men who, strong as human creatures can be, are yet submitted to influences stronger than they, and see in a sort untruly, because what they see is inconceivably above them. This last is the usual condition of prophetic inspiration.” ThinkingMenFeelsFirstsHumansInspirationLastsOrderStrongClassFourInfluenceConditionsHe ManPoetCreaturesStrongerUsualProphetic Book:The Genius of John Ruskin: Selections from His Writings Source: The Genius of John Ruskin: Selections from His Writings
“Maybe there are three or four really good poets in a generation.” ThreeFourGenerationsPoet Author:Kenneth Koch
“In America, where you'd have thought the country's so huge it couldn't happen quite so cosily, everyone's giving his imprimatur to everyone else. You line up three or four well-known poets and a couple of eminent academics on the dustjacket, and the rest of academe follow like sheep. That's death really, if you take pleasure in it. Mind you, the occasional puff's hard to resist, but you shouldn't inhale.” IfsGivingMindWellsCountryHardHappensAmericaThreeLinesPleasureKnownFourPoetHugeCoupleSheepWell KnownOccasionalPuffInhale Author:Michael Longley
“The greatest poem ever known Is one all poets have outgrown: The poetry, innate, untold, Of being only four years old.” YearsChildrenKnownFourChildhoodPoetFour YearsInnate Book:Chimneysmoke Source: Chimneysmoke
“The novel may be dead as a commercial form. When art forms things die as commercial forms, something happens to the practice of those arts that isn't very pleasant. It used to be that a poet like Tennyson could keep his house and his coach-and-four and his staff of six servants on the income from poetry. That doesn't happen anymore.” MayArtHappensFormUsedDiesHousePracticeNovelFourPoetSixCoachesThings HappenIncomeUsed To BeServantPleasantStaffTennyson Author:William Monahan