Alive Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson

For it is not metres, but a metre-making argument that makes a poem.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

“It is not metres, but a metre-making argument that makes a poem,—a thought so passionate and alive that like the spirit of a plant…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

But metre itself implies a passion , i.e. a state of excitement, both in the Poet's mind, & is expected in that of the Reader.

— Samuel Taylor Coleridge

That metre itself forms an essential part of all true poetry is a principle which not even the assertions of an Aristotle or the…

— H. P. Lovecraft

The truest and greatest Poetry, (while subtly and necessarily always rhythmic, and distinguishable easily enough) can never again, in the English language, be express'd…

— Walt Whitman

Poetry wants to make things mean more than they mean, says someone, as if we knew how much things meant, and in what unit…

— Rae Armantrout

It is the specialist's task to talk about means, about centimeters. An artist's task is to talk about the goal, about kilometers, thousands of…

— Yevgeny Zamyatin

“It is (according to one’s point of view) either a wonderful piece of luck or a wise provision of God’s, that poetry which was…

— C.S. Lewis

“what is poetry, how can I even think of meter, metaphor, as you lie dying, swollen & agonized in your pretty gown”

— Sandra M. Gilbert

The modern poet has no essential alliance with regular schemes of any sorts.He reserves the right to adapt his rhythm to his mood, to…

— Herbert Read

One demands two things of a poem. Firstly, it must be a well-made verbal object that does honor to the language in which it…

— W. H. Auden

I'm a poet who can whine in meter

— Sherman Alexie