Poetry is the music of language, a timeless art that captures emotions, tells stories, and reveals truths in ways that prose cannot. It can move us to tears, inspire us to action, or simply offer a quiet moment of reflection. From the works of classic poets to the thoughts of contemporary writers and thinkers, many have expressed the profound role poetry plays in human experience. Here’s a collection of powerful quotes about poetry that reveal its magic, mystery, and meaning.
1. “Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.”
– Robert Frost
2. “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.”
– William Wordsworth
3. “Poetry is the journal of a sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air.”
– Carl Sandburg
4. “Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.”
– Rita Dove
5. “Poetry is the clear expression of mixed feelings.”
– W.H. Auden
6. “A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.”
– Robert Frost
7. “Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.”
– Edgar Allan Poe
8. “Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.”
– Kahlil Gibran
9. “Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world.”
– Percy Bysshe Shelley
10. “Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.”
– Carl Sandburg
11. “Poetry is truth in its Sunday clothes.”
– Joseph Roux
12. “Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds.”
– Percy Bysshe Shelley
13. “Poetry is an art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads.”
– Marianne Moore
14. “Poetry is the language of the soul.”
– Voltaire
15. “Poetry is the lifeblood of rebellion, revolution, and the raising of consciousness.”
– Alice Walker
16. “A good poem is a contribution to reality. The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it.”
– Dylan Thomas
17. “Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits.”
– Carl Sandburg
18. “Poetry is the journal of the sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air.”
– Carl Sandburg
19. “Poetry is what gets lost in translation.”
– Robert Frost
20. “Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them.”
– Charles Simic
21. “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.”
– Percy Bysshe Shelley
22. “Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads.”
– Marianne Moore
23. “The poet is the priest of the invisible.”
– Wallace Stevens
24. “Poetry is the language in which man explores his own amazement.”
– Christopher Fry
25. “Poetry is eternal graffiti written in the heart of everyone.”
– Lawrence Ferlinghetti
26. “Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat.”
– Robert Frost
27. “Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads.”
– Marianne Moore
28. “Poetry is the clear expression of mixed feelings.”
– W.H. Auden
29. “Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds.”
– Percy Bysshe Shelley
30. “Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge.”
– William Wordsworth
31. “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.”
– William Wordsworth
32. “Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.”
– Carl Sandburg
33. “Poetry is the music of the soul, and, above all, of great and feeling souls.”
– Voltaire
34. “Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.”
– Edgar Allan Poe
35. “Poetry is the language of the heart.”
– Anonymous
Poetry distills the human experience into words that resonate across time and space. Poetry remains one of the purest expressions of what it means to be human.