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We don’t know what exact magic is carried by a rhyming sequence of words, but no one would ever deny that it is just there. Something truly majestic happens when you take some words, rhyme them, hide a deeper meaning between the lines, and then share those delicious words with like-minded people. It’s like the same bland words shine anew, and even such a simple word as a potato might now sound like something ethereal, meaningful, and purely awe-inspiring. However, as you can see, our thesis on poetry is a bit simplistic, so why don’t we check out what some slightly more experienced people had to say about this phenomenon of language? A good place to start analyzing the power of the verse would be, of course, our list of the most interesting poetry quotes that we’ve gathered from all around the internet.
So, what should you expect from these smart quotes? Well, for starters, they will try to reveal the true impact that poetry has on people. And here we thought it was something unexplainable, like magic! Then, the very same poetry quotes, while doing their job of explaining, might ignite a certain kind of fire in you, one that burns for rhyming and hidden meanings. Don’t say that we didn’t warn you! And all you have to do is to read our selection of the best quotes on poetry.
Are you ready, dear poetry connoisseurs? If so, scroll down below and check out the beautiful and inspiring quotes in our list. Give your vote for the most touching quotes and share this article with your friends. Yes, even those who have never read a poem in their lives!
“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before.“ ― Audre Lorde
“If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches; for the Creator, there is no poverty.“ ― Rainer Maria Rilke
“I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.“ ― Socrates
“In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite.“ ― Paul Dirac
"A poet must be a psychologist, but a secret one: he should know and feel the roots of phenomena but present only the phenomena themselves in full bloom or as they fade away." ― Ivan Turgenev
"The job of the poet is to render the world - to see it and report it without loss, without perversion. No poet ever talks about feelings. Only sentimental people do." ― Mark Van Doren
"Poetry is often the art of overhearing yourself say things you didn't know you knew. It is a learned skill to force yourself to articulate your life, your present world or your possibilities for the future." ― David Whyte
“Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.” ― Plato
“If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week.” ― Charles Darwin
“One should always be drunk. That's all that matters... But with what? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you chose. But get drunk.” ― Charles Baudelaire
“When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.“ ― John F. Kennedy
“Poetry is the one place where people can speak their original human mind. It is the outlet for people to say in public what is known in private.“ ― Allen Ginsberg
“Poetry is the revelation of a feeling that the poet believes to be interior and personal which the reader recognizes as his own.“ ― Salvatore Quasimodo
“A poet's work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep.“ ― Salman Rushdie
“The fact of the matter is that the most unexpected and miraculous thing in my life was the arrival in it of poetry itself - as a vocation and an elevation almost.“ ― Seamus Heaney
"In a meadow full of flowers, you cannot walk through and breathe those smells and see all those colors and remain angry. We have to support the beauty, the poetry, of life." ― Jonas Mekas
"Poetry, I feel, is a tyrannical discipline. You've got to go so far so fast in such a small space; you've got to burn away all the peripherals." ― Sylvia Plath
“You might as well ask an artist to explain his art, or ask a poet to explain his poem. It defeats the purpose. The meaning is only clear thorough the search.” ― Rick Riordan
“Once, poets were magicians. Poets were strong, stronger than warriors or kings — stronger than old hapless gods. And they will be strong once again.” ― Greg Bear
“Even when poetry has a meaning, as it usually has, it may be inadvisable to draw it out... Perfect understanding will sometimes almost extinguish pleasure.“ ― A. E. Housman
“Poetry is ordinary language raised to the Nth power. Poetry is boned with ideas, nerved and blooded with emotions, all held together by the delicate, tough skin of words.“ ― Paul Engle
"When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry. The poet, too, is not nearly so concerned with describing facts as with creating images." ― Niels Bohr
"Poetry is that art which selects and arranges the symbols of thought in such a manner as to excite the imagination the most powerfully and delightfully." ― William Cullen Bryant
"Poetry should surprise by a fine excess and not by singularity, it should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance." ― John Keats
“I grew up in this town, my poetry was born between the hill and the river, it took its voice from the rain, and like the timber, it steeped itself in the forests.“ ― Pablo Neruda
"Nonfiction speaks to the head. Fiction speaks to the heart. Poetry speaks to the soul. It's the essence of beauty. The essence of pain. It pleases the eye and the ear." ― Ellen Hopkins
"Poetry, fiction as novels or short stories - these are autonomous as created by their authors. They should stand on their own, like pieces of furniture that should be judged as to their usefulness, elegance." ― F. Sionil Jose
"When I began to listen to poetry, it's when I began to listen to the stones, and I began to listen to what the clouds had to say, and I began to listen to others. And I think, most importantly for all of us, then you begin to learn to listen to the soul, the soul of yourself in here, which is also the soul of everyone else." ― Joy Harjo
“What is a poet? An unhappy person who conceals profound anguish in his heart but whose lips are so formed that as sighs and cries pass over them they sound like beautiful music.“ ― Soren Kierkegaard
"The poem is a little myth of man's capacity of making life meaningful. And in the end, the poem is not a thing we see-it is, rather, a light by which we may see-and what we see is life." ― Robert Penn Warren