There are so many things that poetry is about, one of which is memory. Peter Davison on poetry
It is a way we reassess our past. We can do that in poetry in ways we can't do in prose. Peter Davison on poetry
As to London we must console ourselves with the thought that if life outside is less poetic than it was in the days of old, inwardly its poetry is much deeper. Goldwin Smith on poetry
Every one who has a heart, however ignorant of architecture he may be, feels the transcendent beauty and poetry of the mediaeval churches. Goldwin Smith on poetry
Bleak House is just the most astounding piece of work. There's huge, visionary poetry in it. Simon Callow on poetry
The poetry from the eighteenth century was prose the prose from the seventeenth century was poetry. David Hare on poetry
Poetry is the key to the hieroglyphics of nature. David Hare on poetry
Bad, quirky poetry might be better than some of the good stuff, because it really comes from the heart. Cheryl Hines on poetry
Never fear: Thank Home, and Poetry, and the Force behind both. Wilfred Owen on poetry
Poetry is also the physical self of the poet, and it is impossible to separate the poet from his poetry. Salvatore Quasimodo on poetry
He passes from lyric to epic poetry in order to speak about the world and the torment in the world through man, rationally and emotionally. The poet then becomes a danger. Salvatore Quasimodo on poetry
Religious poetry, civic poetry, lyric or dramatic poetry are all categories of man's expression which are valid only if the endorsement of formal content is valid. Salvatore Quasimodo on poetry
Poetry is fascinating. As soon as it begins the poetry has changed the thing into something extra, and somehow prose can go over into poetry. Michael Tippett on poetry
The mystical poetry of William Blake's artwork also forms the basis for the album cover. Bruce Dickinson on poetry
None but a poet can write a tragedy. For tragedy is nothing less than pain transmuted into exaltation by the alchemy of poetry. Edith Hamilton on poetry
The same people who are murdered slowly in the mechanized slaughterhouses of work are also arguing, singing, drinking, dancing, making love, holding the streets, picking up weapons and inventing a new poetry. Raoul Vaneigem on poetry
There is probably nothing wrong with art for art's sake if we take the phrase seriously, and not take it to mean the kind of poetry written in England forty years ago. Allen Tate on poetry
Serious poetry deals with the fundamental conflicts that cannot be logically resolved: we can state the conflicts rationally, but reason does not relieve us of them. Allen Tate on poetry
I am not ridiculing verbal mechanisms, dreams, or repressions as origins of poetry all three of them and more besides may have a great deal to do with it. Allen Tate on poetry
How does one happen to write a poem: where does it come from? That is the question asked by the psychologists or the geneticists of poetry. Allen Tate on poetry