Good Poetry Quotes

• Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.

  T. S. Eliot

  Art, Writing, Reading Poetry

  The Sacred Wood "Philip Massinger" (1920)

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• Do not go gentle into that good night.

  Dylan Thomas

  Tattoo, Good Night, Goodnight

  "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" l. 16 (1952)

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• The woods are lovely, dark, and deep but I have promises to keep...

  Robert Frost

  Tattoo, Running, Taken

  "Stopping byWoods on a Snowy Evening" l. 13 (1923)

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  But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.

  Robert Frost

  Love, Inspirational, Tattoo

  "Stopping byWoods on a Snowy Evening" l. 13 (1923)

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• Good poetry seems so simple and natural a thing that when we meet it we wonder that all men are not always poets. Poetry is nothing but healthy speech.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Simple, Men, Poetry

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.2097, Delphi Classics

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• Good poetry is like effective prayer, it feeds the human spirit, it nourishes, it puts us in touch with forces far greater than ourselves

  Lorna Goodison

  Prayer, Spirit, Force

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• The attempt to divide art and politics is a bourgeois which says good poetry, art, cannot be political, but since everything is … political, even an artist or work that claims not to have any politics is making a political statement by that act.

  Amiri Baraka

  Art, Political, Claims

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• Poets are political, they have to be reflections of their times [because] they're living in their times... Poetry is political in that it's standing in opposition to fascism. Good poetry asks a bunch of questions and asks the audience to interact with themselves or see themselves in it; maybe you like it or you don't like it. But the fascist sort of stuff plays on your fears and tells you to jump on the party line and gives some simple excuses - blame this person.

  John Cusack

  Party, Reflection, Simple

  "The Raven - John Cusack interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

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• No good poetry is ever written in a manner twenty years old, for to write in such a manner shows conclusively that the writer thinks from books, convention and cliché, not from real life.

  Ezra Pound

  Real, Book, Writing

  Ezra Pound (1918). “Pavannes and Divisions”

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• Poetry's always dead, you know? You don't realize how good poetry is until 15 years later.

  Richard Hell

  Years, Realizing, Poetry Is

  "Christopher Wool & Richard Hell". www.interviewmagazine.com. November 18, 2008.

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• There is as much difference between good poetry and fine verses, as between the smell of a flower-garden and of a perfumer's shop.

  Augustus William Hare

  Flower, Garden, Smell

  Julius Charles HARE (Archdeacon of Lewes. and HARE (Augustus William)), Augustus William HARE (1847). “Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers. Third edition. First Series”, p.199

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• Poetry is a street fighter. It has sharp elbows. It can look after itself. Poetry can't be used for manipulation; it's why you never see good poetry in advertising.

  David Whyte

  Looks, Elbows, Manipulation

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• Listen to some good poetry. You see? It keeps us from thinking we are only what our blatant appetites describe us as.

  Maya Angelou

  Thinking, Appetite

  Source: www.psychologytoday.com

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• Good poetry could not have been otherwise written than it is. The first time you hear it, it sounds rather as if copied out of some invisible tablet in the Eternal mind than as if arbitrarily composed by the poet.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Poetry, Mind, Sound

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1964). “The Early Lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.49, Harvard University Press

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• The gap between verse and poetry is enormous. Between good poetry and good prose the gap is much narrower

  Michael Longley

  Gaps, Enormous, Poetry Is

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• Let my name perish, -- the poetry is good poetry and the music is good music,
  and beauty dieth not, and the heart that needs it will find it.

  Sidney Lanier

  Heart, Names, Needs

  Sidney Lanier (1999). “Poems of Sidney Lanier”, p.23, University of Georgia Press

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• I think it was T.S. Eliot who talked about good poetry being felt before it’s understood. I believe that. There are some bands where I love their lyrics but I don’t have a clue what they’re on about.

  Marcus Mumford

  Believe, Thinking, Band

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• Deep feeling doesn't make for good poetry. A way with language would be a bit of help.

  Thom Gunn

  Feelings, Would Be, Way

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• Good poetry and successful revolution change our lives. And you cannot compose a good poem or wage a revolution without changing consciousness unless you attack the language that you share with your enemies and invent a language that you share with your allies.

  June Jordan

  Successful, Justice, Diversity

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• It is fatal to decide, intellectually, what good poetry is because you are then in honour bound to try to write it, instead of the poems that only you can write.

  Philip Larkin

  Writing, Trying, Poetry Is

  Philip Larkin (2012). “Required Writing: Miscellaneous Pieces 1955-1982”, p.72, Faber & Faber

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• To me Art (poetry) is a continuous and continuing process and that when a man fails to write good poetry he fails to live fully or well.

  Charles Bukowski

  Art, Writing, Men

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• Good poetry does undoubtedly tend to form the soul and character; it tends to beget a love of beauty and of truth in alliance together, it suggests, however indirectly, high and noble principles of action, and it inspires the emotion so helpful in making principles operative.

  Matthew Arnold

  Character, Poetry, Inspire

  Matthew Arnold, Gillian Sutherland (1973). “Matthew Arnold on education”, Penguin Books

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• Poetry is something I love to do. Good poetry has an amazing ability to be communicative before it's even understood. I get emotional just from the beauty of words.

  Daniel Radcliffe

  Emotional, Ability, Poetry Is

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• Do not fear to put novels into the hands of young people as an occasional holiday experiment, but above all, good poetry in all kinds,--epic, tragedy, lyric. If we can touch the imagination, we serve them; they will never forget it.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Holiday, Epic, Hands

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• All good poetry is forged slowly and patiently, link by link, with sweat and blood and tears.

  Alfred Douglas

  Blood, Sweat, Tears

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