Poetry

"To write a verse or two, is all the praise That I can raise."

"A verse may finde him who a sermon flies, And turn delight into a sacrifice."

"Versibus exponi tragicis res comica non vult."

"Non satis est pulchra esse poemata, dulcia sunto."

"Versus inopes rerum, nugæque canoræ."

"Ubi plura nitent in carmine, non ego paucis Offendar maculis, quas aut incuria fudit, Aut humana parum cavit natura."

"Nonumque prematur in annum."

"Wheresoe'er I turn my view, All is strange, yet nothing new: Endless labor all along, Endless labor to be wrong: Phrase that Time has flung away; Uncouth words in disarray, Trick'd in antique ruff and bonnet, Ode, and elegy, and sonnet."

"The poetry is the Earth, charming; The river, flowing from lofty mountains; Nature, a young woman and a heavenly plant with blossoming flowers, slinking in the garden of the mind."

"Facit indignatio versum."

"The poetry of earth is never dead; * * * * * The poetry of earth is ceasing never."

"A drainless shower Of light is poesy: 'tis the supreme of power; 'Tis might half slumbering on its own right arm."

"There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays, And—every—single—one—of—them—is—right."

"The time for Pen and Sword was when "My ladye fayre," for pity, Could tend her wounded knight, and then Grow tender at his ditty. Some ladies now make pretty songs, And some make pretty nurses: Some men are good for righting wrongs, And some for writing verses."

"These are the gloomy comparisons of a disturbed imagination; the melancholy madness of poetry, without the inspiration."

"You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket."

"To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric."

"The crown of literature is poetry."

"Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular."

"Of the many definitions of poetry, the simplest is still the best: 'memorable speech'."

"Poetry is itself a thing of God; He made his prophets poets; and the more We feel of poesie do we become Like God in love and power,—under-makers."

"All poetry is misrepresentation."

"As part of the spring ritual of National Poetry Month, poets are symbolically dragged into the public square in order to be humiliated with the claim that their product has not achieved sufficient market penetration and must be revived by the Artificial Resuscitation Foundation (ARF) lest the art form collapse from its own incompetence, irrelevance, and as a result of the general disinterest among the broad masses of the American People. The motto of ARF's National Poetry Month is: "Poetry's not so bad, really.""

"Poetry must find ways of breaking distance. … all languages are dialects that are made to break new grounds."

"A poet rises while falling. It’s the rising in the falling that makes him rise posthumously."

"Poetry worthy of its name is measured by the degree of abstention, of refusal, it implies, and that negative component of its nature must be maintained as essential: it balks at tolerating anything already seen, heard, agreed upon, at using anything already used except when diverting it from its previous function."

"By failing to read or listen to poets, society dooms itself to inferior modes of articulation, those of the politician, the salesman, or the charlatan. In other words, it forfeits its own evolutionary potential. For what distinguishes us from the rest of the animal kingdom is precisely the gift of speech. Poetry is not a form of entertainment and in a certain sense not even a form of art, but it is our anthropological, genetic goal. Our evolutionary, linguistic beacon."

"You speak As one who fed on poetry."

"Poetry is the art of substantiating shadows, and of lending existence to nothing."

"Some rhyme a neebor's name to lash; Some rhyme (vain thought!) for needfu' cash; Some rhyme to court the countra clash, An' raise a din; For me, an aim I never fash; I rhyme for fun."

"For rhyme the rudder is of verses, With which, like ships, they steer their courses."

"Some force whole regions, in despite O' geography, to change their site; Make former times shake hands with latter, And that which was before come after; But those that write in rhyme still make The one verse for the other's sake; For one for sense, and one for rhyme, I think's sufficient at one time."

"Nor florid prose, nor honied lies of rhyme, Can blazon evil deeds, or consecrate a crime."

"I by no means rank poetry high in the scale of intelligence—this may look like affectation—but it is my real opinion—it is the lava of the imagination, whose eruption prevents an earthquake"

"A certain lady went to see the show, Her real name I know not, nor can guess, And so we'll call her Laura, if you please, Because it slips into my verse with ease."

"Poetry is man's rebellion against being what he is."

"Our poetry now is the realization that we possess nothing. Anything therefore is a delight (since we do not possess it) and thus need not fear its loss."

"Poetry, therefore, we will call Musical Thought."