Adam Quote by Adam Kirsch

Poetry is the mysticism of mankind.

— Henry David Thoreau

I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you…

— Socrates

The one who writes a poem writes it above all because verse writing is an extraordinary accelerator of conscience, of thinking, of comprehending the…

— Joseph Brodsky

for a poet is a light and winged thing, and holy, and never able to compose until he has become inspired, and is beside…

— Plato

Poetry is a kind of magic that very few can create and even fewer can truly understand and appreciate in all its glory.

— Dennis Gabor

“For a poet is an airy thing, winged and holy, and he is not able to make poetry until he becomes inspired and goes…

— Plato

He felt himself in suspension between the two worlds, the warm, neat civilization behind his back, the cool, dark mystery outside. We all write…

— John Fowles

Poetry is not like reasoning, a power to be exerted according to the determination of the will. A man cannot say, 'I will compose…

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

The genius of poetry must work out its own salvation in a man; it cannot be matured by law and precept, but by sensation…

— John Keats

A lot of people think they can write poetry, and many do, because they can figure out how to line up the words or…

— Cynthia Rylant

“I knew that not by wisdom do poets write poetry, but by a sort of genius and inspiration; they are like diviners or soothsayers…

— Plato

Writing poetry is such an intense experience that it helps to start the process in a casual or wayward frame of mind.

— Edward Hirsch