Poetry Quotes

Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.

It may be said that poems are in one way like icebergs: only about a third of their bulk appears above the surface of the page.

A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.

Pain is filtered in a poem so that it becomes finally, in the end, pleasure.

I would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of Beauty.

Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits.

Each word bears its weight, so you have to read my poems quite slowly.

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

Poetry is the deification of reality.

He who draws noble delights from sentiments of poetry is a true poet, though he has never written a line in all his life.

Poetry should... should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance.

I like poems that are little games.

Sometimes poetry is inspired by the conversation entered into by reading other poems.

If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry.

If Galileo had said in verse that the world moved, the inquisition might have let him alone.

Poetry lies its way to the truth.

I sometimes talk about the making of a poem within the poem.

A poet's autobiography is his poetry. Anything else is just a footnote.

You don't help people in your poems. I've been trying to help people all my life - that's my trouble.

I still read Donne, particularly his love poems.