Poetry should... should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance.

Poetry should... should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance.

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!

I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I'll die like a read more

I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I'll die like a poet.

Poetry is nothing but healthy speech.

Poetry is nothing but healthy speech.

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.

A prose writer gets tired of writing prose, and wants to be a poet. So he begins every line with read more

A prose writer gets tired of writing prose, and wants to be a poet. So he begins every line with a capital letter, and keeps on writing prose.

Oh love will make a dog howl in rhyme.

Oh love will make a dog howl in rhyme.

Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.

Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.

Poetry teaches us music, metaphor, condensation
and specificity.

Poetry teaches us music, metaphor, condensation
and specificity.