Poetry Quotes

"One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose."

"A poet is someone who stands outside in the rain hoping to be struck by lightning."

James Dickey

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

Charles Simic

"A poem is never finished, only abandoned."

Paul Valéry

"Poetry is to prose as dancing is to walking."

Paul Valéry

"The poet's eye, in fine frenzy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven."

"The lunatic, the lover, and the poet Are of imagination all compact."

"The song that I came to sing remains unsung to this day. I have spent my days in stringing and in unstringing my instrument."

"Thousands of desires, each one worth dying for."

Mirza Ghalib

"There are other poets in the world, very good ones – but they say Ghalib's style of expression is something else."

Mirza Ghalib

"Raise your selfhood so high that before every decree of destiny, God Himself asks you: 'Tell me, what is your wish?'"

Muhammad Iqbal

"Let the beauty of what you love be what you do."

"Speak, for your lips are free."

Faiz Ahmed Faiz

"Every good poem begins in language awakened by a sense of wonder."

Edward Hirsch

"A poem is a naked person."

Bob Dylan

"Poetry is the human soul entire, squeezed like a lemon or a lime, drop by drop, into atomic words."

Langston Hughes

"In poetry, you must love the words, the ideas and the images and rhythms with all your capacity to love anything at all."

May Sarton

"Poetry is a life-cherishing force."

Mary Oliver

"Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it."

Mary Oliver

"Poetry is simply the most beautiful, impressive, and widely effective mode of saying things."

Matthew Arnold

"Poetry is at bottom a criticism of life."

Matthew Arnold

"Poetry is emotion put into measure."

Thomas Hardy

"The poet's job is to put into words those feelings we all have that are so deep, so important, and yet so difficult to name."

Jane Kenyon

"A poem is true if it hangs together."

E. M. Forster

"Poetry is music written for the human voice."