--- title: "10 Poetry Needs Quotes by 9 authors" description: "Browse 10 Poetry Needs quotes by 9 authors. Discover the best Poetry Needs sayings and thoughts." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/545/adrian-mitchell-29590_audience_stadium-rock-and-commercial-rock-are-the_2581796.png" --- > [Stadium rock and commercial rock are the opposite of what poetry needs. An audience of around 200 is ideal for poetry.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adrian-mitchell/stadium-rock-and-commercial-rock-are-the-opposite-of-what-poetry/) [Adrian Mitchell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adrian-mitchell/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/545/adrian-mitchell-29590_audience_stadium-rock-and-commercial-rock-are-the_2581796.png) > [Great poetry needs no interpreter other than a responsive heart.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/helen-keller/great-poetry-needs-no-interpreter-other-than-a-responsive-heart/) [Helen Keller](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/helen-keller/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/740/helen-keller-429_great-poetry_great-poetry-needs-no-interpreter-other_551849.png) > [I do think poetry needs to invite the reader, especially when there are so many other distractions while reading.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-starkey/i-do-think-poetry-needs-to-invite-the-reader-especially-when-there/) [David Starkey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-starkey/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/98e/david-starkey-4242_books_i-do-think-poetry-needs-to-invite-the-re_1402043.png) > [People who publish poetry today do it from a sense that poetry needs to be published, not because they think they are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/campbell-mcgrath/people-who-publish-poetry-today-do-it-from-a-sense-that-poetry-needs/) [Campbell McGrath](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/campbell-mcgrath/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a3c/campbell-mcgrath-32135_making-money_people-who-publish-poetry-today-do-it-fr_2032028.jpg) > [La poe sie veutquelque chose d'e norme, debarbare et de sauvage. Poetry needs something on the scale of the grand, the barbarous,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/denis-diderot/la-poe-sie-veutquelque-chose-d-e-norme-debarbare-et-de-sauvage-poetry/) [Denis Diderot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/denis-diderot/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e74/denis-diderot-1536_barbarous_la-poe-sie-veutquelque-chose-d-e-norme-d_3030925.png) > [Poetry needs to be alive, unabashedly, and, for me, that entails seeing its complexity, the grit and grimness and jubilance and beauty.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alex-lemon/poetry-needs-to-be-alive-unabashedly-and-for-me-that-entails-seeing/) [Alex Lemon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alex-lemon/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c05/alex-lemon-35846_alive_poetry-needs-to-be-alive-unabashedly-and_150425.jpg) > [But I have seen my obstacles: trivialities, learning and poetry. This last needs explaining: the old artist's readiness to dissolve characters into…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/e-m-forster/but-i-have-seen-my-obstacles-trivialities-learning-and-poetry-this/) [E. M. Forster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/e-m-forster/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/12a/e-m-forster-1118_adversity_but-i-have-seen-my-obstacles-trivialitie_2642303.png) > [ “For grammar it \[poetry\] might have, but it needs it not; being so easy in itself, and so void of those cumbersome… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/philip-sidney/for-grammar-it-poetry-might-have-but-it-needs-it-not-being-so-easy-in/) [Philip Sidney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/philip-sidney/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e99/philip-sidney-2095_grammar_for-grammar-it-poetry-might-have-but-it_2572481.png) > [I've never thought of my poems as violent. Violence, to me, has so much negativity attached to it - maybe that's my…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alex-lemon/i-ve-never-thought-of-my-poems-as-violent-violence-to-me-has-so-much/) [Alex Lemon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alex-lemon/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/766/alex-lemon-35846_beauty_i-ve-never-thought-of-my-poems-as-violen_2568875.jpg) > [I don't think poetry needs to be "easily understandable." First of all, there are often complexities of syntax, form, unfamiliar absences, etc.,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/matthew-zapruder/i-don-t-think-poetry-needs-to-be-easily-understandable-first-of-all/) [Matthew Zapruder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/matthew-zapruder/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/197/matthew-zapruder-12762_absence_i-don-t-think-poetry-needs-to-be-easily_2512435.jpg) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry-needs/#itemlist", "name": "Poetry Needs Quotes", "numberOfItems": 10, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Stadium rock and commercial rock are the opposite of what poetry needs. An audience of around 200 is ideal for poetry.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Adrian Mitchell" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adrian-mitchell/stadium-rock-and-commercial-rock-are-the-opposite-of-what-poetry/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/545/adrian-mitchell-29590_audience_stadium-rock-and-commercial-rock-are-the_2581796.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/545/adrian-mitchell-29590_audience_stadium-rock-and-commercial-rock-are-the_2581796.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/545/adrian-mitchell-29590_audience_stadium-rock-and-commercial-rock-are-the_2581796.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Stadium rock and commercial rock are the opposite of what poetry needs. 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Poetry needs something on the scale of the grand, the barbarous, the savage.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Denis Diderot" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/denis-diderot/la-poe-sie-veutquelque-chose-d-e-norme-debarbare-et-de-sauvage-poetry/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e74/denis-diderot-1536_barbarous_la-poe-sie-veutquelque-chose-d-e-norme-d_3030925.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e74/denis-diderot-1536_barbarous_la-poe-sie-veutquelque-chose-d-e-norme-d_3030925.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e74/denis-diderot-1536_barbarous_la-poe-sie-veutquelque-chose-d-e-norme-d_3030925.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“La poe sie veutquelque chose d'e norme, debarbare et de sauvage. Poetry needs something on the scale of the…” — Denis Diderot", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 6, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Poetry needs to be alive, unabashedly, and, for me, that entails seeing its complexity, the grit and grimness and jubilance and beauty.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Alex Lemon" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alex-lemon/poetry-needs-to-be-alive-unabashedly-and-for-me-that-entails-seeing/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c05/alex-lemon-35846_alive_poetry-needs-to-be-alive-unabashedly-and_150425.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c05/alex-lemon-35846_alive_poetry-needs-to-be-alive-unabashedly-and_150425.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c05/alex-lemon-35846_alive_poetry-needs-to-be-alive-unabashedly-and_150425.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Poetry needs to be alive, unabashedly, and, for me, that entails seeing its complexity, the grit and…” — Alex Lemon", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 7, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "But I have seen my obstacles: trivialities, learning and poetry. This last needs explaining: the old artist's readiness to dissolve characters into a haze. Characters cannot come alive and fight and guide the world unless the novelist wants them to remain characters.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "E. M. Forster" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/e-m-forster/but-i-have-seen-my-obstacles-trivialities-learning-and-poetry-this/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/12a/e-m-forster-1118_adversity_but-i-have-seen-my-obstacles-trivialitie_2642303.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/12a/e-m-forster-1118_adversity_but-i-have-seen-my-obstacles-trivialitie_2642303.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/12a/e-m-forster-1118_adversity_but-i-have-seen-my-obstacles-trivialitie_2642303.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“But I have seen my obstacles: trivialities, learning and poetry. This last needs explaining: the old…” — E. M. Forster", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 8, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“For grammar it [poetry] might have, but it needs it not; being so easy in itself, and so void of those cumbersome differences of cases, genders, moods, and tenses, which, I think, was a piece of the Tower of Babylon's curse, that a man shoult be put to school to learn his mother-tongue.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Philip Sidney" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/philip-sidney/for-grammar-it-poetry-might-have-but-it-needs-it-not-being-so-easy-in/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e99/philip-sidney-2095_grammar_for-grammar-it-poetry-might-have-but-it_2572481.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e99/philip-sidney-2095_grammar_for-grammar-it-poetry-might-have-but-it_2572481.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e99/philip-sidney-2095_grammar_for-grammar-it-poetry-might-have-but-it_2572481.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“For grammar it [poetry] might have, but it needs it not; being so easy in itself, and so void of those…” — Philip Sidney", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 9, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I've never thought of my poems as violent. Violence, to me, has so much negativity attached to it - maybe that's my trouble with the word. But ferocious - indeed, I'll take it. And yes, poetry does need a bit of ferocity. Poetry needs to be alive, unabashedly, and, for me, that entails seeing its complexity - the grit and grimness and jubilance and beauty.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Alex Lemon" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alex-lemon/i-ve-never-thought-of-my-poems-as-violent-violence-to-me-has-so-much/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/766/alex-lemon-35846_beauty_i-ve-never-thought-of-my-poems-as-violen_2568875.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/766/alex-lemon-35846_beauty_i-ve-never-thought-of-my-poems-as-violen_2568875.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/766/alex-lemon-35846_beauty_i-ve-never-thought-of-my-poems-as-violen_2568875.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I've never thought of my poems as violent. Violence, to me, has so much negativity attached to it - maybe…” — Alex Lemon", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 10, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I don't think poetry needs to be \"easily understandable.\" First of all, there are often complexities of syntax, form, unfamiliar absences, etc., that require a deeper concentration than is usually demanded of us. So that, right off the bat, is a little difficult. Then there is the deeper issue of what poetry is really asking of us. I feel it is asking us to read with great, even sacred, care and attention. That, too, is difficult. It requires discipline and the creation of a temporary zone of privacy, which is inimical to our current conditions of life.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Matthew Zapruder" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/matthew-zapruder/i-don-t-think-poetry-needs-to-be-easily-understandable-first-of-all/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/197/matthew-zapruder-12762_absence_i-don-t-think-poetry-needs-to-be-easily_2512435.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/197/matthew-zapruder-12762_absence_i-don-t-think-poetry-needs-to-be-easily_2512435.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/197/matthew-zapruder-12762_absence_i-don-t-think-poetry-needs-to-be-easily_2512435.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I don't think poetry needs to be \"easily understandable.\" First of all, there are often complexities of…” — Matthew Zapruder", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } } ] }, { "@type": "CollectionPage", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry-needs/#webpage", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry-needs/", "name": "Poetry Needs Quotes", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry-needs/#itemlist" }, "primaryImageOfPage": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/545/adrian-mitchell-29590_audience_stadium-rock-and-commercial-rock-are-the_2581796.png" }, "description": "Browse 10 Poetry Needs quotes by 9 authors. Discover the best Poetry Needs sayings and thoughts.", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry-needs/#breadcrumb" } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry-needs/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Topics", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/categories/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Poetry Needs Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry-needs/" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```