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Poetry Quotes

Browse 12091 quotes about Poetry.

Poetry Quotes

“A poet's work consists less in seeking words for his ideas than in seeking ideas for his words and predominant rhythms.”

Art Ideas Poetry Poet Seeking Rhythm

Author:Paul Valery

“I invented the colors of the vowels!--A black, E white, I red, O blue, U green--I made rules for the form and movement of each consonant, and, and with instinctive rhythms, I flattered myself that I had created a poetic language accessible, some day, to all the senses.”

Made Form Poetry Language Black White Movement Color Poet Red Blue Green Senses Rhythm Poetic Flattered Vowels Consonants

Author:Arthur Rimbaud

“It is unwise to equate scientific activity with what we call reason, poetic activity with what we call imagination. Without the imaginative leap from facts to generalisation, no theoretic discovery in science is made. The poet, on the other hand, must not imagine but reason--that is to say, he must exercise a great deal of consciously directed thought in the selection and rejection of his data: there is a technical logic, a poetic reasoning in his choice of the words, rhythms and images by which a poem's coherence is achieved.”

“A speech is poetry: cadence, rhythm, imagery, sweep! A speech reminds us that words, like children, have the power to make dance the dullest beanbag of a heart.”

Heart Children Poetry Speech Rhythm Imagery Public Speaking Cadence

Book:Today's Best Nonfiction

Source: Today's Best Nonfiction

“The essentials of poetry are rhythm, dance, and the human voice.”

Humans Poetry Voice Essentials Rhythm Human Voice

Author:Earle Birney

“Philosophy is antipoetic. Philosophize about mankind and you brush aside individual uniqueness, which a poet cannot do without self-damage. Unless, for a start, he has a strong personal rhythm to vary his metrics, he is nothing. Poets mistrust philosophy. They know that once the heads are counted, each owner of a head loses his personal identify and becomes a number in some government scheme: if not as a slave or serf, at least as a party to the device of majority voting, which smothers personal views.”

Source: Some speculations on literature, history, and religion

“The word "Verse" is used here as the term most convenient for expressing, and without pedantry, all that is involved in the consideration of rhythm, rhyme, meter, and versification... the subject is exceedingly simple; one tenth of it, possibly may be called ethical; nine tenths, however, appertains to the mathematics.”

May Used Poetry Term Simple Subjects Involved Mathematics Nine Rhythm Consideration Ethical Verses Rhyme Convenient Meter Pedantry

Author:Edgar Allan Poe

“Who among us has not, in moments of ambition, dreamt of the miracle of a form of poetic prose, musical but without rhythm and rhyme, both supple and staccato enough to adapt itself to the lyrical movements of our souls, the undulating movements of our reveries, and the convulsive movements of our consciences? This obsessive ideal springs above all from frequent contact with enormous cities, from the junction of their innumerable connections.”

Source: The Prose Poems and La Fanfarlo

“When the rhythm and night ride, no heart can hide.”

Heart Poetry Night Rhythm

Author:Steve Winwood