I think that at a certain age, say fifteen or sixteen, poetry is like masturbation. But later in life good poets burn… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
What I search for continuously in my art is adequate language, language I hope can stand beyond any particular occasion. What I'm… — Adrienne Rich Copy Share Image
As to London we must console ourselves with the thought that if life outside is less poetic than it was in the… — Goldwin Smith Copy Share Image
Many people become bankrupt through having invested too heavily in the prose of life. To have ruined one's self over poetry is… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
The reason modern poetry is difficult is so that the poet's wife cannot understand it. — Wendy Cope Copy Share Image
Prose is when all the lines except the last go on to the end. Poetry is when some of them fall short… — Jeremy Bentham Copy Share Image
Poetry is one of the original arts, and it began, as did all the fine arts, within the original wilderness of the… — Mary Oliver Copy Share Image
I think clarity is the real risk in poetry because you are exposed. You're out in the open field. You're actually saying… — Billy Collins Copy Share Image
The difference between genuine poetry and the poetry of Dryden, Pope, and all their school, is briefly this: their poetry is conceived… — Matthew Arnold Copy Share Image
Poetry is like walking along a little, tiny, narrow ridge up on a precipice. You never know the next step, whether there's… — Josephine Jacobsen Copy Share Image
... in a history of spiritual rupture, a social compact built on fantasy and collective secrets, poetry becomes more necessary than ever:… — Adrienne Rich Copy Share Image
The inmost spirit of poetry, in other words, is at bottom, in every recorded case, the voice of pain – and the… — Ted Hughes Copy Share Image
I feel that the task of criticizing my poetry is best left to others (i.e. critics) and would much rather have it… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
The air is like a butterfly With frail blue wings. The happy earth looks at the sky And sings. — Joyce Kilmer Copy Share Image
Most poetry is the utterance of a man in some state of passion, love, joy, grief, rage, etc., and no doubt this… — W. H. Auden Copy Share Image
Poetry is another space, like love, where we extend that extra credit to the writer. — Elif Batuman Copy Share Image
Poetry is a series of explanations of life, fading off into horizons too swift for explanations. — Carl Sandburg Copy Share Image
