Famously Said Random quote

Quotes about poetry

150 quotes from 90 people

Most readBy personPage 9 of 10

Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought. The farthest external horizons of our hopes and fears are cobbled by our poems, carved from the rock experiences of our daily lives.
Audre Lorde1934–1992Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984), “Poetry is Not a Luxury”, p. 37
Poetry is simply the most beautiful, impressive and widely effective mode of saying things, and hence its importance.
Matthew Arnold1822–1888Essays in Criticism (1865), “Heinrich Heine”
The grand style arises in poetry, when a noble nature, poetically gifted, treats with simplicity or with severity a serious subject.
Matthew Arnold1822–1888On Translating Homer: Last Words (1862)
Poetry is like time travel, and poems take us to the heart of the matter.
Queen Camillaborn 1947First World War centenary: the war poem that moves the Duchess of Cornwall to tears The Daily Telegraph (28 June 2014)
Our family are an alternate stratification of poetry and mathematics.
Ada Lovelace1815–1852In a letter to Andrew Crosse, as quoted in Eugen Kölbing’s Englische Studien, Volume 19 (1894), Leipzig
- Family
I wonder who first discovered the efficacy of poetry in driving away love!
Jane Austen1775–1817Pride and Prejudice (1813), Volume I, Chapter IXIn context
- Love
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
Lewis Carroll1832–1898Through the Looking-Glass (1871), Chapter IIn context
- Comedy
Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas⁠—only I don’t exactly know what they are!
Lewis Carroll1832–1898Through the Looking-Glass (1871), Chapter IIn context
- Ideas
‘The time has come,’ the Walrus said,
‘To talk of many things:
Of shoes⁠—and ships⁠—and sealing-wax⁠—
Of cabbages⁠—and kings⁠—
And why the sea is boiling hot⁠—
And whether pigs have wings.’
Lewis Carroll1832–1898Through the Looking-Glass (1871), Chapter IVIn context
- Talking
Ever drifting down the stream⁠—
Lingering in the golden gleam⁠—
Life, what is it but a dream?
Lewis Carroll1832–1898Through the Looking-Glass (1871), Chapter XIIIn context
- Life & Death
All along the backwater,
Through the rushes tall,
Ducks are a-dabbling,
Up tails all!
Kenneth Grahame1859–1932The Wind in the Willows (1908), Chapter IIIn context
- Animals
O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention,
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
William Shakespeare1564–1616Henry V (1599), Prologue, spoken by ChorusIn context
- Inspiration
There is an ancient quarrel between philosophy and poetry
Plato429–349 BCThe Republic (c. 375 BC), Book XIn context
- Philosophy
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date
William Shakespeare1564–1616Sonnet 18 (1609)In context
- Beauty
- Love
Milton! thou should’st be living at this hour:
England hath need of thee
William Wordsworth1770–1850London, 1802 (1807)In context
- Patriotism