“It is worthwhile adding that the power of the poem to teach not only sensibilities and the subtle movements of the spirit but knowledge, real lasting felt knowledge, is going mostly unnoticed among our scholars. The body of knowledge locked into and releasable from poetry can replace practically any university in the Republic. First things first, then: the primal importance of a poem is what it can add to the individual mind.Poetry is the voice of a poet at its birth, and the voice of a people in its ultimate fulfillment as a successful and useful work of art.” PeopleMindFirstsArtRealBodySpiritIndividualFeltVoiceTeachSuccessfulMovementPoetBirthUltimateImportanceAddUniversityFulfillmentSubtlePoetry IsLastingWorks Of ArtRepublicWorthwhileScholarLockedSensibilityPrimalUnnoticedFirst Things First Author:Guy Davenport
“A poet feels the impulse to create a work of art when the passive awe provoked by an event is transformed into a desire to express that awe in a rite of worship.” FeelsArtDesireCreativityEventsPoetWorshipImpulseAweWorks Of ArtTransformedPassiveRiteProvoked Author:W. H. Auden
“A life lived in chaos is an impossibility for the artist. No matter how unstructured may seem the painter's garret in Paris or the poet's pad in Greenwich Village, the artist must have some kind of order or he will proudce a very small body of work. To create a work of art, great or small, is work, hard work, and work requires discipline and order.” KindMayArtMatterHardBodySeemsArtistOrderPoetHard WorkDisciplineChaosPainterParisWorks Of ArtVillageImpossibilityPadsGreenwichGreenwich Village Book:Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art Source: Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art
“Poetry can be criticized only through poetry. A critique which itself is not a work of art, either in content as representation of the necessary impression in the process of creation, or through its beautiful form and in its liberal tone in the spirit of the old Roman satire, has no right of citizenship in the realm of art.” ArtBeautifulFormSpiritPoetryProcessCreationPoetCriticismImpressionRealmsToneSatireWorks Of ArtRepresentationCitizenshipCritique Author:Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
“A good poem has its own life. It's like bringing a child into the world. You, the poet, birthed the child, but the child will surprise you continually. I think a work of art has its own aliveness, its own future.” ThinkingWorldChildrenArtPoetSurpriseWorks Of Art Author:David Whyte
“Each poet probably has his or her own cupboard of magnets. For some, it is cars; for others, works of art, or certain patterns of form or sound; for others, certain stories or places, Philip Levine's Detroit, Gwendolyn Brooks's Chicago, Seamus Heaney's time-tunneled, familied Ireland.” ArtStoriesFormCertainSoundCarPoetPatternsWorks Of ArtChicagoIrelandDetroitBrooksMagnetPhilipCupboards Author:Jane Hirshfield