The poetry that sustains me is when I feel that, for a minute, the clouds have parted and I've seen ecstasy or something. Rita Dove
By the general process of epic poetry, I mean the way this form of art has constantly responded to the profound needs of the society in which it was made. Lascelles Abercrombie
Epic poetry exhibits life in some great symbolic attitude. It cannot strictly be said to symbolize life itself, but always some manner of life. Lascelles Abercrombie
If epic poetry is a definite species, the sagas do not fall within it. Lascelles Abercrombie
That is to say, epic poetry has been invented many times and independently but, as the needs which prompted the invention have been broadly similar, so the invention itself has been. Lascelles Abercrombie
The reason can only be this: heroic poetry depends on an heroic age, and an age is heroic because of what it is, not because of what it does. Lascelles Abercrombie
Traditional matter must be glorified, since it would be easier to listen to the re-creation of familiar stories than to quite new and unexpected things the listeners, we must remember, needed poetry chiefly as the re-creation of tired hours. Lascelles Abercrombie
Rap is poetry to music, like beatniks without beards and bongos. David Lee Roth
I really enjoy English and poetry and writing classes. Taylor Momsen
As civilization advances, poetry almost necessarily declines. Thomas B. Macaulay
I'm conscious of a series of circles working its way through my life. And at this particular moment I have come round to the beginning of my writing cycle. It begins with poetry. There's hardly a day that goes past on which I don't write poetry. Ben Okri
Poetry is above all a concentration of the power of language, which is the power of our ultimate relationship to everything in the universe. Adrienne Rich
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. Walter Savage Landor
What other people may find in poetry or art museums, I find in the flight of a good drive. Arnold Palmer
For me, poetry is a situation - a state of being, a way of facing life and facing history. Tahar Ben Jelloun
Poetry is not only a set of words which are chosen to relate to each other it is something which goes much further than that to provide a glimpse of our vision of the world. Tahar Ben Jelloun
Poetry is a form of mathematics, a highly rigorous relationship with words. Tahar Ben Jelloun
A grain of poetry suffices to season a century. Jose Marti
I cannot speak for more than an hour exclusively about poetry. At that point, life itself takes over again. Wislawa Szymborska
Poetic talent doesn't operate in a vacuum. There is a spirit of Polish poetry. Wislawa Szymborska