Art Quote by Rick Riordan

Don't ask a poet to explain himself. He cannot.

— Plato

Often people, when they're confronted with a poem, it's like someone who keep saying 'what is the meaning of this? What is the meaning…

— Billy Collins

If you want to annoy a poet, explain his poetry.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The poem is a form of texting... it's the original text. It's a perfecting of a feeling in language - it's a way of…

— Carol Ann Duffy

The meaning of a poem is in the cadences and the shape of the lines and the pulse of the thought which is given…

— George Oppen

It is very difficult to explain poetry. You have to understand the poetry and figure out your own take and your relatability.

— Shoojit Sircar

The artist looks for a subject. You know, a lot of new poets don't seem to have a subject. I don't totally understand that.

— Gerald Stern

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

What a poem means is as much what it means to others as what it means to the author; and indeed, in the course…

— T. S. Eliot

Often when I write poetry I don't quite know what I'm saying myself. I mean, I can't restate the poem. The meaning of the…

— Pattiann Rogers

Does it mean this, does it mean that, that's all anybody wants to know. I'd say what any decent poet would say if anyone…

— Freddie Mercury

“too much explanation can take the pleasure out of any poetry. (Preface, vii)”

— Harold G. Henderson