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Poetry Quotes

On verse, beauty, and the search to define art.

This set opens with the case for teaching children poetry early, since it broadens young minds and passes on virtue almost by inheritance, then weighs how differently prose and poetry can each carry weight. See Art quotes for related themes.

At twenty, I implicitly dissociated poetry from politics.

Quotes by Adrienne Rich

Poetry can't give us the laws and institutions and representatives, the antidotes we need: only public activism by massive numbers of citizens can do that.

Quotes by Adrienne Rich

I want to gesture toward a poetry of ourselves and others under the conditions of twenty-first-century absolutism, making us dimensional in a time when the human concrete is continually erased by state and religious violence and by disingenuous jargon serving...

Quotes by Adrienne Rich

Poetry is above all a concentration of the power of language, which is the power of our ultimate relationship to everything in the universe.

Quotes by Adrienne Rich

Art Quotes

The moment of change is the only poem.

Quotes by Adrienne Rich

Written poetry is different. Best thing is to see it in performance first, then read it. Performance is more provocative.

Quotes by Adrian Mitchell

Most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people.

Quotes by Adrian Mitchell

Stadium rock and commercial rock are the opposite of what poetry needs. An audience of around 200 is ideal for poetry.

Quotes by Adrian Mitchell

I love all kinds of music. My dad's from London, so he loves David Bowie, the Stones, The Clash. I grew up with that influence while loving poetry and loving all kinds of current music.

Quotes by Adam Hicks

Good Quotes

I love to read poetry but I haven't written anything that I'm willing to show anybody.

Quotes by Abraham Verghese

In the total darkness, poetry is still there, and it is there for you.

Quotes by Abbas Kiarostami

Poetry always runs away from you - it's very difficult to grasp it, and every time you read it, depending on your conditions, you will have a different grasp of it. Whereas with a novel, once you have read it,...

Quotes by Abbas Kiarostami

I write poetry on my iPhone. I've got about 100 poems on there.

Quotes by Aaron Neville

So now I have a collection of poetry by Aaron Neville and I give it to people I want to share it with. I'd like to publish it someday.

Quotes by Aaron Neville

Life Quotes

Besides the actual reading in class of many poems, I would suggest you do two things: first, while teaching everything you can and keeping free of it, teach that poetry is a mode of discourse that differs from logical exposition.

Quotes by A. R. Ammons

Probably all the attention to poetry results in some value, though the attention is more often directed to lesser than to greater values.

Quotes by A. R. Ammons

I am grateful for - though I can't keep up with - the flood of articles, theses, and textbooks that mean to share insight concerning the nature of poetry.

Quotes by A. R. Ammons

Once every five hundred years or so, a summary statement about poetry comes along that we can't imagine ourselves living without.

Quotes by A. R. Ammons

Poetry leads us to the unstructured sources of our beings, to the unknown, and returns us to our rational, structured selves refreshed.

Quotes by A. R. Ammons

Love Quotes

The poet exposes himself to the risk. All that has been said about poetry, all that he has learned about poetry, is only a partial assurance.

Quotes by A. R. Ammons

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does one quote suggest teaching children poetry?
For some big reasons: "Teach your children poetry; it opens the mind, lends grace to wisdom and makes the heroic virtues hereditary." It frames poetry as something that shapes character, not just language skill.
Can poetry and prose mix well, according to these quotes?
Not always evenly, according to one quote: "Prose on certain occasions can bear a great deal of poetry; on the other hand, poetry sinks and swoons under a moderate weight of prose." It suggests poetry is more delicate and easily weighed down by too much prose. For more on getting a craft's balance right, see our Good quotes.
Do these quotes try to define beauty through poetry?
They try, but admit it's difficult. One notes, "Many attempts have been made by writers on art and poetry to define beauty in the abstract, to express it in the most general terms, to find some universal formula for it," suggesting beauty resists a single, tidy definition. For more reflections on craft and creativity, see our Art quotes.
Is analyzing poetry the same as enjoying it, according to these quotes?
Not quite — one quote suggests that such discussions "help us very little to enjoy what has been well done in art or poetry," implying that appreciation and analysis are two different things.
Where can I find more content connecting art and expression?
Our Life and Love collections both explore expression from other emotional angles.

Other entries take on the harder question of defining beauty itself, noting how many writers have tried and failed to pin it down in universal terms. Explore Love and Life quotes for more.