Poetry Quotes

PoetryInvite to Poetry Quotes, the ultimate source for inspirational and also provocative quotes from the world's biggest poets. Here you will find a collection of timeless words of knowledge from some of one of the most distinguished poets in history. Whether you are trying to find a quote to motivate you, to make you laugh, or to make you believe, you will find it below. So, take a minute to explore our collection and discover the ideal quote to express your feelings.
Small: To read a poem is to hear it with our eyes to hear it is to see it with our ears - Octavio Paz
"To read a poem is to hear it with our eyes; to hear it is to see it with our ears"
Octavio Paz, Poet
Small: All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling - Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
"All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling"
Oscar Wilde, Dramatist
Small: A poet can survive everything but a misprint - Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
"A poet can survive everything but a misprint"
Oscar Wilde, Dramatist
Small: A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness - Robert Frost
Robert Frost
"A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness"
Robert Frost, Poet
Small: Poetry: the best words in the best order - Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
"Poetry: the best words in the best order"
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Poet
Small: Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks - Plutarch
Plutarch
"Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks"
Plutarch, Philosopher
Small: Poets are soldiers that liberate words from the steadfast possession of definition - Eli Khamarov
Eli Khamarov
"Poets are soldiers that liberate words from the steadfast possession of definition"
Eli Khamarov, Writer
Small: Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history - Plato
Plato
"Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history"
Plato, Philosopher
Small: A poem is never finished, only abandoned - Paul Valery
Paul Valery
"A poem is never finished, only abandoned"
Paul Valery, Poet
Small: Always be a poet, even in prose - Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire
"Always be a poet, even in prose"
Charles Baudelaire, Poet
Small: Breathe-in experience, breathe-out poetry - Muriel Rukeyser
"Breathe-in experience, breathe-out poetry"
Muriel Rukeyser, Poet
Small: A poet looks at the world the way a man looks at a woman - Wallace Stevens
"A poet looks at the world the way a man looks at a woman"
Wallace Stevens, Poet
Small: A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language - W. H. Auden
W. H. Auden
"A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language"
W. H. Auden, Poet
Small: Any healthy man can go without food for two days - but not without poetry - Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire
"Any healthy man can go without food for two days - but not without poetry"
Charles Baudelaire, Poet
Small: To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one - John Ruskin
John Ruskin
"To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one"
John Ruskin, Writer
Small: A poem is true if it hangs together. Information points to something else. A poem points to nothing but itself
E. M. Forster
"A poem is true if it hangs together. Information points to something else. A poem points to nothing but itself"
E. M. Forster, Novelist
Small: Each word bears its weight, so you have to read my poems quite slowly - Anne Stevenson
"Each word bears its weight, so you have to read my poems quite slowly"
Anne Stevenson, Poet
Small: A poem conveys not a message so much as the provenance of a message, an advent of sense - Thomas Harrison
"A poem conveys not a message so much as the provenance of a message, an advent of sense"
Thomas Harrison
Small: Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie - Jean Coc
"Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie"
Jean Cocteau, Director
Small: You dont make a poem with ideas, but with words - Stephane Mallarme
"You don't make a poem with ideas, but with words"
Stephane Mallarme, Poet
Small: Usually a life turned into a poem is misrepresented - Mark Strand
"Usually a life turned into a poem is misrepresented"
Mark Strand, Poet
Small: We all write poems it is simply that poets are the ones who write in words - John Fowles
"We all write poems; it is simply that poets are the ones who write in words"
John Fowles, Novelist
Small: He who draws noble delights from sentiments of poetry is a true poet, though he has never written a line in al
George Sand
"He who draws noble delights from sentiments of poetry is a true poet, though he has never written a line in all his life"
George Sand, Novelist
Small: However, if a poem can be reduced to a prose sentence, there cant be much to it - James Schuyler
"However, if a poem can be reduced to a prose sentence, there can't be much to it"
James Schuyler, Poet
Small: Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket - Charles Simic
"Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket"
Charles Simic, Poet
Small: How do poems grow? They grow out of your life - Robert Penn Warren
"How do poems grow? They grow out of your life"
Robert Penn Warren, Novelist
Small: A poets autobiography is his poetry. Anything else is just a footnote - Yevgeny Yevtushenko
"A poet's autobiography is his poetry. Anything else is just a footnote"
Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Poet
Small: Each memorable verse of a true poet has two or three times the written content - Alfred de Musset
"Each memorable verse of a true poet has two or three times the written content"
Alfred de Musset, Writer
Small: You dont help people in your poems. Ive been trying to help people all my life - thats my trouble - Charles Ol
"You don't help people in your poems. I've been trying to help people all my life - that's my trouble"
Charles Olson, Poet
Small: Poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted - Percy Bysshe Shelley
"Poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted"
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Poet
Small: Sometimes poetry is inspired by the conversation entered into by reading other poems - John Barton
"Sometimes poetry is inspired by the conversation entered into by reading other poems"
John Barton, Poet
Small: Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance - Carl Sandburg
"Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance"
Carl Sandburg, Poet
Small: I sometimes talk about the making of a poem within the poem - Howard Nemerov
"I sometimes talk about the making of a poem within the poem"
Howard Nemerov, Poet
Small: A true poet does not bother to be poetical. Nor does a nursery gardener scent his roses - Jean Cocteau
"A true poet does not bother to be poetical. Nor does a nursery gardener scent his roses"
Jean Cocteau, Director
Small: The moment of change is the only poem - Adrienne Rich
Adrienne Rich
"The moment of change is the only poem"
Adrienne Rich, Poet
Small: A poem can have an impact, but you cant expect an audience to understand all the nuances - Douglas Dunn
"A poem can have an impact, but you can't expect an audience to understand all the nuances"
Douglas Dunn, Poet
Small: A poem might be defined as thinking about feelings - about human feelings and frailties - Anne Stevenson
"A poem might be defined as thinking about feelings - about human feelings and frailties"
Anne Stevenson, Poet
Small: Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world - Percy Bysshe Shelley
"Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world"
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Poet
Small: Everyone thinks theyre going to write one book of poems or one novel - Marilyn Hacker
"Everyone thinks they're going to write one book of poems or one novel"
Marilyn Hacker, Poet
Small: A poets work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, a
"A poet's work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep"
Salman Rushdie, Novelist
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