Books Quote by Archibald MacLeish

The one man who should never attempt an explanation of a poem is its author. If the poem can be improved by it's author's…

— Archibald MacLeish

Never write a poem about anything that ought to have a poem written about it.

— Richard Hugo

The works of great poets have never been read by mankind, for only great poets can read them.

— Henry David Thoreau

A poem is never finished, only abandoned.

— Paul Valery

“Poetry should forever be becoming and never perfected.”

— Friedrich Schlegel

I do think the author ought to be able to give a good reason for the way things are in his poem. Not a…

— James Dickey

It is never what a poem says that matters, but what it is.

— I. A. Richards

Written poetry is worth reading once, and then should be destroyed. Let the dead poets make way for others.

— Antonin Artaud

An old poet ought never to be caught with his technique showing.

— Stanley Kunitz

The story and the poem are obviously changed by being placed in the novel, so in a sense they're no longer the works that…

— Ben Lerner

A bad poem is one that vanishes into meaning.

— Paul Valery

a poet never feels useful.

— May Sarton