"Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words."
Robert Frost
PoetryEmotion
Poetry Quotes
200 FAMOUS QUOTES · POETRY
Poetry Quotes
Best poetry quotes from Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Shelley, Wordsworth, T. S. Eliot and Keats: 200 inspiring lines on poems, poets and words.
"Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility."
William Wordsworth
PoetryFeelings
"Poetry is what gets lost in translation."
Robert Frost
PoetryTranslation
"A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness."
Robert Frost
PoemsEmotion
"Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds."
Percy Bysshe Shelley
"Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world."
Percy Bysshe Shelley
PoetsInfluence
"Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words."
Edgar Allan Poe
"If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry."
Emily Dickinson
PoetryFeeling
"Poetry is the journal of a sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air."
Carl Sandburg
"Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance."
Carl Sandburg
"Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion."
T. S. Eliot
PoetryEmotion
"Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood."
T. S. Eliot
"Poetry: the best words in the best order."
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
PoetryWords
"Poetry is the language in which man explores his own amazement."
Christopher Fry
PoetryWonder
"Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth."
Samuel Johnson
"Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash."
Leonard Cohen
"Poetry is ordinary language raised to the Nth power."
Paul Engle
PoetryLanguage
"Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary."
Kahlil Gibran
PoetryEmotion
"Poetry is truth in its Sunday clothes."
Joseph Roux
"Poetry is life distilled."
Gwendolyn Brooks
"Poetry is the music of the soul, and, above all, of great and feeling souls."Voltaire
PoetrySoul
"Poetry should surprise by a fine excess and not by singularity."
John Keats
PoetryCraft
"If poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree it had better not come at all."
John Keats
"Poetry is the mother tongue of mankind."
Johann Georg Hamann
PoetryHumanity
"Poetry is the clear expression of mixed feelings."
W. H. Auden
PoetryFeelings
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About Poetry Quotes
# Poetry Quotes
What is poetry? Poets themselves have spent centuries trying to answer that question. Robert Frost said poetry is "when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words." William Wordsworth called it "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings," and Emily Dickinson knew she was reading poetry when she felt "as if the top of my head were taken off."
This collection gathers the best poetry quotes on poems, poets, language, imagination and the power of words, from Shelley, Keats, T. S. Eliot, W. H. Auden, Pablo Neruda, Kahlil Gibran, Rabindranath Tagore and many more. Whether you write poems, teach them or simply love reading them, these lines celebrate the art that says the most in the fewest words.
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers about Poetry quotes.
What is the most famous quote about poetry?
One of the most famous is William Wordsworth's definition of poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings," from his preface to *Lyrical Ballads* (1800). Robert Frost's "Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words" is another favourite.
How did famous poets define poetry?
Samuel Taylor Coleridge called poetry "the best words in the best order," Edgar Allan Poe described it as "the rhythmical creation of beauty in words," and Emily Dickinson said she knew it was poetry when she felt "as if the top of my head were taken off." Each definition shows a different side of the art.
What are some of the most famous lines from classic poems?
Well-known lines include Shakespeare's "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?", Blake's "Tyger Tyger, burning bright," Keats's "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever," Robert Frost's "miles to go before I sleep," and William Ernest Henley's "I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul."
Who are some famous Indian poets with memorable quotes?
Rabindranath Tagore, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 for *Gitanjali*, wrote "Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high." Kabir's dohas, Mirza Ghalib's Urdu ghazals, Mirabai's devotional songs and Sarojini Naidu, the "Nightingale of India," are also widely loved and quoted.
When is World Poetry Day?
World Poetry Day is celebrated every year on March 21, as declared by UNESCO in 1999. It honours poets, encourages reading and writing poetry, and promotes poetry in many languages around the world.
How can I use poetry quotes?
Poetry quotes are perfect for World Poetry Day posts, literature classes, journal prompts, wedding speeches, greeting cards and social media captions. Writers also use them as daily inspiration, and teachers often pin a favourite line to the board to spark a discussion about language and meaning.