Affirmation Quote by Adrienne Rich

Poetry is the way into a spiritual vision of society and the universe.

— Camille Paglia

Poetry is most just to its divine origin, when it administers the comforts and breathes the thoughts of religion.

— William Wordsworth

As a direct line to human feeling, empathic experience, genuine language and detail, poetry is everything that headline news is not. It takes us…

— Naomi Shihab Nye

Poetry has historically been allied with religion and morals; it has served the purpose of penetrating the mysterious depths of things.

— John Dewey

The primary function of poetry, as of all the arts, is to make us more aware of ourselves and the world around us. I…

— W. H. Auden

Poetry is ordinary language raised to the Nth power. Poetry is boned with ideas, nerved and blooded with emotions, all held together by the…

— Paul Engle

As for the usefulness of poetry, its uses are many. It is the deification of reality. It should make our days holy to us.…

— Edith Sitwell

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

Poetry is one of the essential structures of civilization - carrying myth, ritual, 'tales of the tribe' and the essence of language.

— Diane Wakoski

I certainly can't speak for all cultures or all societies, but it's clear that in America, poetry serves a very marginal purpose. It's not…

— Mark Strand

Poetry is the universal possession of mankind, revealing itself everywhere, and at all times, in hundreds and hundreds of men.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

On the one hand poetry is useless. It can't change the world materially. On the other hand it is a basic part of human…

— Bei Dao