Poetry is, above all, an approach to the truth of feeling…

Poetry is, above all, an approach to the truth of feeling.

— Muriel Rukeyser

Poetry is rather an approach to things, to life, than it is typographical production.

— Joseph Brodsky

A fine poem combines the elements of meaning, music, and a form like a living frame that holds it together.

— Arnold Adoff

One ought, everyday, to hear a song, read a fine poem, and, if possible, to speak a few reasonable words.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“I have made a similar suggestion for poetry: that one should approach it as pure sonority, reading and rereading it as a sort of…

— Paul Valéry

The statement of ideas in a poem may have to do with logic. More profoundly, it may be identified with the emotional progression of…

— Muriel Rukeyser

Poetry is the enemy of the poem.

— Stanley Kunitz

The poem is not a thing we see; it is, rather, a light by which we may see.

— Robert Penn Warren

To me, a poem is almost like someone whispering to another person, or you hear the whispering in your head. I hope with my…

— Rita Dove

the truth of a poem is its form and its content, its music and its meaning are the same.

— Muriel Rukeyser

Poetry is the dark side of the moon,

— Charles Wright

As to London we must console ourselves with the thought that if life outside is less poetic than it was in the days of…

— Goldwin Smith

All poetry is misrepresentation.

— Jeremy Bentham

What I search for continuously in my art is adequate language, language I hope can stand beyond any particular occasion. What I'm finding is…

— Adrienne Rich

I think that at a certain age, say fifteen or sixteen, poetry is like masturbation. But later in life good poets burn their early…

— Umberto Eco