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Poet Quotes

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Poet Quotes

“It starts off like climbing a tree or solving a puzzle - poetry, if nothing else, is just fun to write. But deeper into each and every piece, you no longer hesitate to call it work. It's passion. A poet's sense of lyrical accomplishment is then his food and water, his means of survival.”

Ifs Writing Mean Passion Fun Water Pieces Tree Poet Survival Deeper Accomplishment Working It Climbing Puzzles Lyrical

Book:Killosophy

Source: Killosophy

“If poetry were nothing but texture, [Dylan] Thomas would be as good as any poet alive. The what of his poems is hardly essential to their success, and the best and most brilliantly written pieces usually say less than the worst.”

Ifs Would Be Pieces Alive Written Worst Poet Essentials Dylan Texture

Author:Randall Jarrell

“When modernist poetry, or what not so long ago passed for modernist poetry, can reach the stage where the following piece by Mr. Ezra Pound is seriously offered as a poem, there is some justification for the plain reader and orthodox critic who shrinks from anything that may be labelled 'modernist' either in terms of condemnation or approbation. Better he thinks, that ten authentic poets should be left for posterity to discover than one charlatan should be allowed to steal into the Temple of Fame.”

Thinking Should May Long Left Term Pieces Stage Poet Reader Fame Ten Critics Following Stealing Temples Pounds Orthodox Justification Long Ago Shrinks Posterity Condemnation Charlatans

Author:Laura Riding

“It is surprising to see what superficial, inconsequential reasonings satisfy the most part of mankind. A piece of wit, a jest, a simile, or a quotation of an Author, passes for a mighty argument.... This weakness and effeminacy of mankind in being persuaded where they are delighted, have made them the sport of orators, poets, and men of wit.”

Men Made Sports Pieces Mankind Poet Weakness Argument Wit Reasoning Surprising Quotations Superficial Simile Delighted Jest Orators Inconsequential

Book:The Life and Works of John Arbuthnot, M.D.: Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians

Source: The Life and Works of John Arbuthnot, M.D.: Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians

“You are not an artist simply because you paint or sculpt or make pots that cannot be used. An artist is a poet in his or her own medium. And when an artist produces a good piece, that work has mystery, an unsaid quality; it is alive.”

Used Artist Quality Pieces Alive Mystery Produce Poet Paint Mediums Pot Unsaid

Book:The poetry of clay: the art of Toshiko Takaezu

Source: The poetry of clay: the art of Toshiko Takaezu

“I intend 'Dämmerung' to be an ironic meditation on the financial rewards of poetry and a tragicomic lament on the passing of time and the changes in literary taste. The other poets mentioned are my poetic cohort from the U.K. I wrote the piece in situ, as it were, while making a television documentary about World War I in Germany.”

World War Pieces Meditation Television Poet Taste Rewards Financial Passing Passings War Of The Worlds Germany Poetic Ironic World War I Documentaries Lament

Author:Simon Armitage

“He who, in an enlightened and literary society, aspires to be a great poet, must first become a little child. He must take to pieces the whole web of his mind. He must unlearn much of that knowledge which has perhaps constituted hitherto his chief title to superiority. His very talents will be a hindrance to him.”

Mind Firsts Children Littles Whole Poetry Pieces Talent Poet Chiefs Titles Enlightened Aspire Superiority Hindrance Great Poet Unlearn

Author:Thomas B. Macaulay

“I should think that many of our poets, the honest ones, will confess to having no manifesto. It is a painful confession but the art of poetry carries its own powers without having to break them down into critical listings. I do not mean that poetry should be raffish and irresponsible clown tossing off words into the void. But the very feeling of a good poem carries its own reason for being... Art is its own excuse, and it’s either Art or it’s something else. It’s either a poem or a piece of cheese.”

Thinking Should Mean Art Reason Feelings Break Pieces Honest Poet Art Is Painful Excuse Critical Carrie Void Confession Cheese Clown Irresponsible Manifestos

Book:On Writing

Source: On Writing

“I had hoped to be a poet, and for a long time I tried to write poetry. My first published pieces were poems.”

Writing Firsts Long Pieces Poet Long Time

Author:Norman Lock

“Rumi, who is one of the greatest Persian poets, said that the truth was a mirror in the hands of God. It fell, and broke into pieces. Everybody took a piece of it, and they looked at it and thought they had the truth.”

Said Hands Pieces Poet Mirrors Broke Persian Hands Of God

Author:Mohsen Makhmalbaf