When superstition is allowed to perform the task of old age in dulling the human temperament, we can say goodbye to all excellence in poetry, in... →
Denis Diderot
Poetry must have something in it that is barbaric, vast and wild.
In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's... →
Paul Dirac
I do not see how a man can work on the frontiers of physics and write poetry at the same time. They are in opposition.
I am two fools, I know, for loving, and for saying so in whining poetry.
John Donne
The job of the poet is to render the world - to see it and report it without loss, without perversion. No poet ever talks about feelings. Only... →
Mark Van Doren
All good poetry is forged slowly and patiently, link by link, with sweat and blood and tears.
Lord Alfred Douglas
Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.
Rita Dove
The poetry that sustains me is when I feel that, for a minute, the clouds have parted and I've seen ecstasy or something.
Nothing is too small. Nothing is too, quote-unquote, ordinary or insignificant. Those are the things that make up the measure of our days, and... →