“I think it was rather an advantage not having any living poets in England or America in whom one took any particular interest. I don't know what it would be like but I think it would be a rather troublesome distraction to have such a lot of dominating presences, as you call them, about. Fortunately we weren't bothered by each other.” ThinkingKnowsWould BeAmericaPoetryInterestParticularPoetAdvantageEnglandDistractionBotheredTroublesomeDominating Author:T. S. Eliot
“If certain critics and poetasters had their way, 'Ordinary Piety' and its child, Dullness, would be the masters of poetry.” IfsWayChildrenWould BePoetryCertainMastersOrdinaryCriticsPietyDullness Author:Edith Sitwell
“it is as unseeing to ask what is the use of poetry as it would be to ask what is the use of religion.” UseWould BePoetryAsks Author:Edith Sitwell
“I do not suppose that anyone not a poet can realize the agony of creating a poem. Every nerve, even every muscle, seems strained to the breaking point. The poem will not be denied; to refuse to write it would be a greater torture. It tears its way out of the brain, splintering and breaking its passage, and leaves that organ in the state of a jelly-fish when the task is done.” WayWritingStatesDoneSeemsWould BePoetryRealizingBrainGreaterTearsPoetCreatingTasksFishesRefuseTortureMusclesNervesPassagesDeniedOrgansAgonyJellyPoint Break Author:Amy Lowell
“What the artist tries to do (either consciously or unconsciously) is to not only capture the essence of something but also to amplify it in order to more powerfully activate the same neural mechanisms that would be activated by the original object.” TryingArtWould BePoetryArtistOrderObjectsEssenceOriginalsCaptureMechanismActivateAmplify Author:Vilayanur S. Ramachandran
“If there were no poetry on any day in the world, poetry would be invented that day. For there would be an intolerable hunger.” IfsWorldWould BePoetryHunger Author:Muriel Rukeyser
“For I dipped into the future, far as human eye could see, Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be.” WorldHumansWould BeEyeSciencePoetrySpaceWonderVisionHistorySawsFutureGraduationMy FutureGrapplingHuman EyesVisions Of The FutureSeesawFuture Science Author:Alfred Lord Tennyson
“Ornate rhetorick taught out of the rule of Plato.... To which poetry would be made subsequent, or indeed rather precedent, as being less suttle and fine, but more simple, sensuous, and passionate.” MadeWould BePoetrySimpleTaughtFineSimplicityPassionatePlatoPrecedentSensuous Author:John Milton
“In the world of poetry there are would-be poets, workshop poets, promising poets, lovesick poets, university poets, and a few real poets.” WorldRealWould BePoetryPoetUniversityWorkshops Author:James Broughton