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poetrytrek.com quotable
Quotations from the Journey
"With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion; and the passion should be held in reverence; they must not—they cannot at will be excited, with an eye to the paltry compensations, or the more paltry commendations, of mankind."
-Edgar Allan Poe
"Forgive me my nonsense as I also forgive the nonsense of those who think they talk sense."
-Robert Frost
"The novel, that secondary form, can teach us how to act; the poem, and music, how to feel: and the feeling is vastly more important."
-Theodore Roethke
1963
"The weak poet is magnetized toward some popular mystique or even religion. The strong poet is always the heretic and the saint."
-Karl Shapiro
1960
"In the unpredictable and fearful future that awaits civilization, the poet must be prepared to be alienated and indestructible. He must dedicate himself to poetry, although no one else seems likely to read what he writes; and he must be indestructible as a poet until he is destroyed as a human being."
-Delmore Schwartz
1951
"The poet-priest had two functions: lawgiver and comforter. He had to know what laws to give, what comfort to give, what comfort to withhold as false. The poet has far less power now, but the job has not changed. He must affirm, comfort as he can, and make it stick."
-John Gardner
On Moral Fiction (1978) pp.174-175.
"Many people believe that reading poetry is good for the soul. Personally, I can’t recommend poetry. I don’t have time to read anything that's deliberately hard to figure out. If I wanted to read something that didn’t make sense, I’d just read Maria Shriver’s book."
-Al Franken
Oh, the Things I Know! (2000) p.104.
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