A poet is a man who manages, in a lifetime of standing out in thunderstorms, to be struck by lightning read more

A poet is a man who manages, in a lifetime of standing out in thunderstorms, to be struck by lightning five or six times.

Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.

Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.

Some force whole regions, in despite
O' geography, to change their site;
Make former times shake hands read more

Some force whole regions, in despite
O' geography, to change their site;
Make former times shake hands with latter,
And that which was before come after;
But those that write in rhyme still make
The one verse for the other's sake;
For one for sense, and one for rhyme,
I think's sufficient at one time.

Of our conflicts with others we make rhetoric; of our conflicts with ourselves we make poetry.

Of our conflicts with others we make rhetoric; of our conflicts with ourselves we make poetry.

Poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted.

Poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted.

To have great poets, there must be great audiences too.

To have great poets, there must be great audiences too.

morning: that first sapphire dome of glow.

morning: that first sapphire dome of glow.

The poem is the point at which our strength gave out.

The poem is the point at which our strength gave out.

When the brain gets as dry as an empty nut,
When the reason stands on its squarest toes,
read more

When the brain gets as dry as an empty nut,
When the reason stands on its squarest toes,
When the mind (like a beard) has a "formal cut,"--
There is a place and enough for the pains of prose;
But whenever the May-blood stires and glows,
And the young year draws to the "golden prime,"
And Sir Romeo sticks in his ear a rose,--
Then hey! for the ripple of laughing rhyme!