Ifs Quote by Robert Hass

And the second question, can poetry be taught? I didn't think so.

— Norman MacCaig

I would insist that poetry is a normal human activity and its proper concern all the things that happen to people.

— Michael Longley

I cannot understand why poetry is not taught at schools as a way of seeing, a quick, untiring path to essentials.

— May Sarton

Poetry had in the hands of various people become a place for inconvenient knowledge insofar as it was a place for knowledge at all.…

— Robert Hass

My gut was always that if I taught students poetry, I would give too much of myself to them and have nothing left.

— Victoria Chang

For whatever reason, people, including very well-educated people or people otherwise interested in reading, do not read poetry

— Paul Muldoon

Poetry has a way of teaching one what one needs to know ... if one is honest.

— May Sarton

A poem can have an impact, but you can't expect an audience to understand all the nuances.

— Douglas Dunn

If we were in the habit of reading poets their obscurity would not matter; and, once we are out of the habit, their clarity…

— Randall Jarrell

Poetry is not a way of saying things; it's a way of seeing things.

— Karl Shapiro

I think when kids just see well-crafted poetry, it's just obtuse to them. It's hard to relate to.

— Anonymous

Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them.

— Charles Simic