What is a Sonnet? 'Tis the pearly shell
That murmurs of the far-off, murmuring sea;
A precious jewel carved most curiously;
It is a little picture painted well.
What is a Sonnet? 'Tis the tear that fell
From a great poet's hidden ecstasy;
A two-edged sword, a star, a song--ah me!
Sometimes a heavy tolling funeral bell.
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Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.
Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.
Poetry is boned with ideas, nerved and blooded with emotions, all held together by the delicate, tough skin of words.
Poetry is boned with ideas, nerved and blooded with emotions, all held together by the delicate, tough skin of words.
Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat.
Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat.
Poetry is what gets lost in translation.
Poetry is what gets lost in translation.
Poetry is truth dwelling in beauty.
Poetry is truth dwelling in beauty.
It is Homer who has chiefly taught other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.
It is Homer who has chiefly taught other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.
Feel you the barren flattery of a rhyme?
Can poets soothe you, when you pine for bread,
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Feel you the barren flattery of a rhyme?
Can poets soothe you, when you pine for bread,
By winding myrtle round your ruin'd shed?
Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat.
Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat.
When the brain gets as dry as an empty nut,
When the reason stands on its squarest toes,
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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!
