Poet Quotes

Being Poet Laureate made me realize I was capable of a larger voice. There is a more public utterance I can make as a poet.

I am not as these are, the poet saithIn youth's pride, and the painter, among menAt bay, where never pencil comes nor pem

Inside every lawyer is the wreck of a poet.

Indeed, as any one who has ever worked among the poor knows only too well, the brotherhood of man is no mere poet's dream, it is a most depressing and humiliating reality.

There's nothing wrong with delighting in what you do. In fact, most of the fun you'll have as a poet will come about during the process of writing.

A poet is the most unpoetical of anything in existence; because he has no identity he is continually informing and filling some other body.

Honest criticism and sensitive appreciation are directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry.

What a lover’s heart knows let no man’s brain dispute.

I am a poet in deeds--not often in words.

The poet makes silk dresses out of worms.

I think some period drama can be quite alienating, but 'Downton' isn't. This is going to sound quite, um, pretentious, but someone said that it's like a soap written by a poet.

Everyone is a poet at 16, but how many are poets at 50? Generally, people seem to get more conservative as they age, but in my case, I seem to have gotten more radical.

To have opinions is to sell out to youself. To have no opinions is to exist. To have every opinion is to be a poet.

There has been a vast output of critical studies in contemporary poetry, some of them first rate, but I do not think that , as a rule, a poet should read them.

You can judge the moral bearing of a political system, a political institution, a political man by the degree of danger they attach to the fact of being observed through the eyes of a satiric poet.

There's nothing great Nor small, has said a poet of our day, Whose voice will ring beyond the curfew of eve And not be thrown out by the matin's bell.

The best prose is written by authors who see their universe with a poet’s eyes.

The fairy poet takes a sheet Of moonbeam, silver white; His ink is dew from daisies sweet, His pen a point of light.

We painters use the same license as poets and madmen.

A great poet is the most precious jewel of a nation.

A great actor is independent of the poet, because the supreme essence of feeling does not reside in prose or in verse, but in the accent with which it is delivered.

Any poet, if he is to survive beyond his 25th year, must alter; he must seek new literary influences; he will have different emotions to express.

It seems to me that the poet has only to perceive that which others do not perceive, to look deeper than others look. And the mathematician must do the same thing.

A world without poetry and art would be too much like one without birds or flowers: bearable but a lot less enjoyable.

All the things an artist must be: poet, explorer of nature, philosopher!

The philosopher's soul dwells in his head, the poet's soul is in his heart; the singer's soul lingers about his throat, but the soul of the dancer abides in all her body.

A prose writer gets tired of writing prose, and wants to be a poet. So he begins every line with a capital letter, and keeps on writing prose.

It is always hard for poets to believe that one says their poems are bad not because one is a fiend but because their poems are bad.

The sensual man conforms thoughts to things; the poet conforms things to his thoughts.

The poet speaks adequately only when he speaks somewhat wildly... not with intellect alone, but with intellect inebriated by nectar.

The scientist has marched in and taken the place of the poet. But one day somebody will find the solution to the problems of the world and remember, it will be a poet, not a scientist.

As a poet, there is only one political duty, and that is to defend one's language from corruption.

A poet is not something you become; a poet is something you are.

The poet lights the light and fades away. But the light goes on and on.

A poet sees things in two ways: First, as a child who never saw it before, and Second, as a dying man who will never see it again.

The eye is the notebook of the poet.

A poet can survive everything but a misprint.

Writing, then, was a substitute for myself: if you don't love me, love my writing & love me for my writing. It is also much more: a way of ordering and reordering the chaos of experience.

Great Poets discover themselves. Little Poets have to be 'discovered' by somebody else.

In the history of old Jewish literature there was never any basic difference between the poet and the prophet. Our ancient poetry often became law and a way of life.

He is a lyric poet . . . aloof from the swirling currents in which many of his colleagues are immersed.

Recipe for the upbringing of a poet: 'As much neurosis as the child can bear.

One travels so as to learn once more how to marvel at life in the way a child does. And blessed be the poet, the artist who knows how to keep alive his sense of wonder.

The pure work implies the disappearance of the poet as speaker, who hands over to the words.

To a Young Poet Time cannot break the bird's wing from the bird. Bird and wing together Go down, one feather. No thing that ever flew, Not the lark, not you, Can die as others do.

The more the poet grows, the deeper the level of creative intuition descends into the density of his soul. Where formerly he could be moved to song, he can do nothing now, he must dig deeper.

The painter needs all the talent of the poet, plus hand-eye coordination.

None merits the name of Creator but God and the poet.

When there is war, the poet lays down the lyre, the lawyer his law reports, the schoolboy his books.

In the beginning, said a Persian poet Allah took a rose, a lily, a dove, a serpent, a little honey, a Dead Sea apple, and a handful of clay. When he looked at the amalgram it was a woman.