quotations about poetry
It is not in the power of every man or woman to be a poet, but all can cultivate a taste for it; and doing so tends to instruct the mind in what is refined and beautiful, heroic and elevating. Who could read "Paradise Lost" by that king of poets, Milton, without taking, for the time being at any rate, a flight towards heaven. Who could follow Camoens in his "Lusiad" without in imagination sailing through lovely isles covered with tropical foliage, and wafting spicy breezes through the fragrant air. Who that has read the unfortunate Fawkner's "Shipwreck," but has realized all the horrors of a water grave. Has Byron never led you to Greece, or Burns to the Ayrshire cotter's home? Have not the all-but inspired poems of that gifted Christian (all-but earthly saint), Heber, carried you as a missionary to "Afric's sunny fountains," or to the "Manger of Bethlehem?" Did Walter Scott never turn you for the time into a noble Scottish chieftain, or Longfellow into a North American Indian? Go to the poets when your mind is weary of the world, and there you will find rest.
T. AUGUSTUS FORBES LEITH
"On Cultivating a Taste for Poetry", Short Essays
What does it mean to be a great poet? It means that you wrote one or two great poems. Or great parts of poems. That's all it means. Don't try to picture the waste or it will alarm you.
NICHOLSON BAKER
The Anthologist
The masters of information have forgotten about poetry, where words may have a meaning quite different from what the lexicon says, where the metaphoric spark is always one jump ahead of the decoding function, where another, unforeseen reading is always possible.
J. M. COETZEE
Diary of a Bad Year