Pathetic Quote by H. L. Mencken

A poet must need be before his own age, to be even with posterity

— James Russell Lowell

I have often argued that a poet more than thirty years old is simply an overgrown child. I begin to suspect that there may…

— H. L. Mencken

A poet more than thirty years old is simply an overgrown child.

— H. L. Mencken

No good poetry is ever written in a manner twenty years old, for to write in such a manner shows conclusively that the writer…

— Ezra Pound

An age which is incapable of poetry is incapable of any kind of literature except the cleverness of a decadence.

— Raymond Chandler

But I'm too old to be written about as a young poet.

— Philip Levine

Poetry is a game of loser-take-all.

— Jean-Luc Godard

Poets are shameless with their experiences: they exploit them.

— Friedrich Nietzsche

“One of the more interesting things you'll notice in the entire history of poetry & poets, art & artists is those useless untalented individuals…

— R.M. Engelhardt

“Do you know what people do when they read poetry?  They try to figure out what was going on in the poet’s head, and…

— Debora Geary

Poetry's always dead, you know? You don't realize how good poetry is until 15 years later.

— Richard Hell

This quality becomes important at a time when almost everyone is a poet. And as I said, we live in an age where almost…

— Clive James