Poetry is the universal language which the heart holds with nature and itself. He who has a contempt for poetry, cannot have much respect for himself, or for anything else.
William Hazlitt – Poetry, Language
The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something and what it saw in a plain way. To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion – all in one.
John Ruskin – Poetry, Sight
Lyrical poetry is out for the time being, and something that is called rap or hip-hop is in. It is still poetry, and we can’t live without it. We need language to tell us who we are, how we feel, what we’re capable of – to explain the pains and glory of our existence.
Maya Angelou – Poetry
Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.
Aristotle – Poetry, History
Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those we have personality and emotion know what it means to want to escape from these things.
T.S. Eliot – Poetry, Emotion
When a poet’s mind is perfectly equipped for its work, it is constantly amalgamating disparate experiences.
T.S. Eliot – Poetry, Experience
Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.
T.S. Eliot – Poetry
Poetry is emotion put into measure. The emotion must come by nature, but the measure can be acquired by art.
