Poetic Quotes

• Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Love, Fear, Philosophy

  Saint Thomas (Aquinas) (1971). “Saint Thomas Aquinas”

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• Always be a poet, even in prose.

  Charles Baudelaire

  Writing, Poetry, Literature

  Charles Baudelaire, Christopher Isherwood, W. H. Auden (2006). “Intimate Journals”, p.108, Courier Corporation

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• Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads.

  Marianne Moore

  Inspirational, Life, Art

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• A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.

  W. H. Auden

  Love, Passion, Language Words

  "Poets at Work" by W. H. Auden, (p. 170), 1948.

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• There exist only three beings worthy of respect: the priest, the soldier, the poet. To know, to kill, to create.

  Charles Baudelaire

  Respect, Soldier, Three

  "Intimate journals: Mon cœur mis à nu". Book by Charles Baudelaire, 1864.

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• Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart.

  Pablo Casals

  Music, Beautiful, Heart

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• A poet looks at the world the way a man looks at a woman.

  Wallace Stevens

  Writing, Men, Poetry

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• Learn to reverence night and to put away the vulgar fear of it, for, with the banishment of night from the experience of man, there vanishes as well a religious emotion, a poetic mood, which gives depth to the adventure of humanity.

  Henry Beston

  Religious, Travel, Adventure

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• Poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted.

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Beautiful, Mirrors, Poetry

  Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1840). “A defence of poetry. Essay on the literature, arts, and manners of the Athenians. Preface to the Banquet of Plato. The banquet”, p.33

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• Metaphors are dangerous. Love begins with a metaphor. Which is to say, love begins at the point when a woman enters her first word into our poetic memory.

  Milan Kundera

  Love, Dream, Memories

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• To have great poets, there must be great audiences.

  Walt Whitman

  Learning, Science, Discovery

  Walt Whitman, Floyd Stovall (2007). “Prose Works 1892, Volume II: Collect and Other Prose”, p.521, NYU Press

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• A poet's autobiography is his poetry. Anything else can only be a footnote.

  Yevgeny Yevtushenko

  History, Poetry, Footnotes

  "A Precocious Autobiography". Translated from the Russian by Andrew R. MacAndrew,

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• A poet is someone who stands outside in the rain hoping to be struck by lightning.

  James Dickey

  Rain, Poetry, Lightning

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• There is poetry as soon as we realize that we possess nothing.

  John Cage

  Poetry, Realizing

  John Cage, Daniel Charles (1981). “For the birds”, Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd

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• Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.

  Carl Sandburg

  Dance, Writing, Echoes

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• Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.

  Leonard Cohen

  Writing, Poetry, Ashes

  "My favourite word in songwriting history is 'that'" by Laura Barton, www.theguardian.com. May 31, 2007.

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• Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.

  Edgar Allan Poe

  Beauty, Thoughtful, Poetry

  "The Poetic Principle". Essay by Edgar Allan Poe, 1850.

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• Dancing is the body made poetic.

  Ernst Bacon

  Dance, Dancing, Ballet

  Ernst Bacon (2013). “Notes on the Piano”, p.151, Courier Corporation

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• The poet doesn't invent. He listens.

  Jean Cocteau

  Poetry, Invention, Poet

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• I could I trust starve like a gentleman. It's listed as part of the poetic training, you know.

  Ezra Pound

  Trust, Gentleman, Training

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• Each memorable verse of a true poet has two or three times the written content.

  Alfred de Musset

  Memorable, Two, Poetry

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• I would define the poetic effect as the capacity that a text displays for continuing to generate different readings, without ever being completely consumed.

  Umberto Eco

  Reading, Different, Capacity

  Umberto Eco (1994). “The Name of the Rose”, p.545, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The moment of change is the only poem.

  Adrienne Rich

  Change, Healing, Poetry

  Adrienne Rich (1971). “The Will to Change: Poems 1968-1970”, p.47, W. W. Norton & Company

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• To a poet, silence is an acceptable response, even a flattering one.

  Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

  Silence, Flattering, Response

  "Paris From My Window". Book by Sidonie Gabrielle Colette, 1944.

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• Poetry; a criticism of life under the conditions fixed for such a criticism by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty.

  Matthew Arnold

  Law, Criticism, Fixed

  Matthew Arnold (1973). “English Literature and Irish Politics”, p.163, University of Michigan Press

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