Poetry Quotes by E. M. Forster

9 Poetry quotes by E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster is better known for his novels, but these nine verses reveal a softer, more reflective facet of his writing. The selection is brief, yet each line carries the same keen observation you’d expect from his prose.

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The sort of poetry I seek resides in objects man can't touch.

E. M. Forster

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A poem is true if it hangs together. Information points to something else. A poem points to nothing but itself.

E. M. Forster

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I know by experience that the poets are right: love is eternal.

E. M. Forster

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We are not concerned with the very poor. They are unthinkable, and only to be approached by the statistician or the poet.

E. M. Forster

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The sort of poetry I seek only resides in objects Man can't touch - like England 's grass network of lanes 100…

E. M. Forster

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England still waits for the supreme moment of her literature--for the great poet who shall voice her, or, better still, for the…

E. M. Forster

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But I have seen my obstacles: trivialities, learning and poetry. This last needs explaining: the old artist's readiness to dissolve characters into…

E. M. Forster

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In Europe life retreats out of the cold, and exquisite fireside myths have resulted—Balder, Persephone—but [in India] the retreat is from the…

E. M. Forster

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“Why has not England a great mythology? Our folklore has never advanced beyond daintiness, and the greater melodies about our country-side have…

E. M. Forster

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More by E. M. Forster

Do not be proud of your inconsistency. It is a pity, it is a pity that we should be equipped like this. It is…

E. M. Forster

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Reverence is fatal to literature.

E. M. Forster

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This element of surprise or mystery - the detective element as it is sometimes rather emptily called - is of great importance in a…

E. M. Forster

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It is so difficult - at least, I find it difficult - to understand people who speak the truth.

E. M. Forster

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Railway termini are our gates to the glorious and the unknown

E. M. Forster

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Ah, but you see, I didn't want to be fair.

E. M. Forster

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The final test for a novel will be our affection for it, as it is the test of our friends, and of anything else…

E. M. Forster

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America is rather like life. You can usually find in it what you look for It will probably be interesting, and it is sure…

E. M. Forster

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A critic has no right to the narrowness which is the frequent prerogative of the creative artist.

E. M. Forster

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All men are equal — all men, that is to say, who possess umbrellas.

E. M. Forster

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Before the civil war, Pottibakia was a normal member of the Comity of Nations. She erected tariff walls, broke treaties, persecuted minorities, obstructed at…

E. M. Forster