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Poetry Quotes

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Poetry Quotes

“we are far too used to the assumption that poetry and poets will be there when we want them, no matter how long they have been ignored, taken for granted, misused. After all, isn't poetry a form of prophecy, and aren't prophets known for their talent for flourishing in inhospitable deserts and other bleak surroundings? Maybe. But maybe not indefinitely.”

Source: A movement of poets: thoughts on poetry and feminism

“A work of (whatever) art can be either 'received' or 'used'. ...'Using' is inferior to 'reception' because art, if used rather than received, merely facilitates, brightens, relieves or palliates our life, and does not add to it ... When the art in question is literature a complication arises, for to 'receive' significant words is always, in one sense, to 'use' them, to go through and beyond them to an imagined something which is not itself verbal.”

Ifs Doe Art Use Used Poetry Literature Our Lives Add Significant Arise Inferiors Complication Facilitate Reception

Author:C. S. Lewis

“Increasingly, those who used to teach and write critical or theoretical texts are writing fiction, poetry and so on; and kinds of texts are being produced that call for budding readers rather different from those who studied literature in the past.”

Writing Kind Different Past Used Poetry Literature Fiction Teach Reader Critical Theoretical Writing Fiction

Author:Nicholas Royle

“A child playing with dolls may shed heartfelt tears when his bundle of rags and scraps becomes deathly ill and dies ... So we may come to an understanding of language as playing with dolls: in language, scraps of sound are used to make dolls and replace all the things in the world.”

World May Children Used Poetry Dies Literature Language Understanding Sound Tears Ill Shed Dolls Heartfelt Scrap Rags Bundles Children Playing

Author:Velimir Khlebnikov

“A tattered copy of Johnson's large Dictionary was a great delight to me, on account of the specimens of English versifications which I found in the Introduction. I learned them as if they were so many poems. I used to keep this old volume close to my pillow; and I amused myself when I awoke in the morning by reciting its jingling contrasts of iambic and trochaic and dactylic metre, and thinking what a charming occupation it must be to "make up" verses.”

Ifs Thinking Used Poetry Found Morning Poet Accounts Delight Copies Occupation Contrast Verses Volume Charming Introduction Dictionary Johnson Pillow Amused Reciting

Book:A New England girlhood

Source: A New England girlhood

“Everywhere we are told that our human resources are all to be used, that our civilization itself means the uses of everything it has - the inventions, the histories, every scrap of fact. But there is one kind of knowledge - infinitely precious, time-resistant more than monuments, here to be passed between the generations in any way it may be: never to be used. And that is poetry.”

Way Humans Kind May Mean Facts Use Used Poetry Knowledge Generations Poet Civilization Resources Invention Monument Usefulness Human Resources Scrap Precious Time

Author:Muriel Rukeyser

“When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry. The poet, too, is not nearly so concerned with describing facts as with creating images and establishing mental connections.”

Inspirational Facts Used Poetry Language Poet Creating Concerned Poetic Atoms Describing

Author:Niels Bohr

“The poet may be used as a barometer, but let us not forget that he is also part of the weather.”

May Art Philosophy Used Poetry Forget History Poet Weather Forget The Past Barometer

Author:Lionel Trilling

“No matter how much we learn, there is always more knowledge to be gained. In this connection I am reminded of a short poem that has been in my mind over the years. It reads as follow: I used to think I knew I knew. But now I must confess. The more I know I know I know I know I know the less.”

Thinking Knows Years Mind Has Beens Matter Used Poetry Learning Connections More Knowledge

Author:A. Ray Olpin

“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