“Terror itself, when once grown transcendental, becomes a kind of courage; as frost sufficiently intense, according to the poet Milton, will burn.” KindPoetTerrorIntenseFrostTranscendentalMilton Book:The French Revolution: a History Source: The French Revolution: a History
“A poet's soul must contain the perfect shape of all things good, wise and just. His body must be spotless and without blemish, his life pure, his thoughts high, his studies intense.” SoulBodyPerfectStudyWisePoetPureShapesAll ThingsIntenseGood Wise Book:Collected essays Source: Collected essays
“... the reason why there are so few first-class poets is that many people have intense feelings or first-class minds but to get the two together so that you will be willing to put a poem through sixty drafts, to be that self-critical, to keep breaking it down, that is what is rare. Right now most poetry is just self-indulgence.” PeopleMindFirstsTwoSelfReasonFeelingsTogetherPoetryClassWillingPoetRight NowCriticalIntenseReason WhyPoetry IsSixtyIndulgenceFirst ClassSelf IndulgenceIntense Feelings Author:May Sarton
“It seems to me a purely lyric poet gives himself, right down to his sex, to his mood, utterly and abandonedly, whirls himself roundtill he spontaneously combusts into verse. He has nothing that goes on, no passion, only a few intense moods, separate like odd stars, and when each has burned away, he must die.” GivingSeemsPoetryDiesPassionStarsSexPoetGoes OnMoodIntenseOddBurnedVerses Author:D. H. Lawrence
“In America, a metrical poem is likely to conjure up the idea of the sort of poet who wears ties and lunches at the faculty club. In Russia it suggests the moral force of an art practiced against the greatest personal odds, as a discipline, solitary and intense.” ArtIdeasAmericaForceMoralPoetDisciplineClubsRussiaIntenseTiesFacultyLunchSolitaryOdds Author:Joseph Brodsky
“That is a horrible thing in a way, but it is the one thing poets can bring back to experience, this intense focus on language, which activates words as a portal back into experience. It's a mysterious process that's very hard to articulate, because it's focused entirely on the material of language in a way, but in the interests not just of language itself whatever that would mean - that's the mistake, by the way, that so many so-called "experimental" poets make - but in service to human experience.” WayHumansMeanHardLanguageProcessInterestMistakeFocusOne ThingPoetMaterialsFocusedIntenseHorribleMysteriousHuman ExperiencePortalHorrible ThingsActivate Author:Matthew Zapruder