If poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree it had better not come at all.

Poetry should be great and unobtrusive, a thing which enters into one's soul, and does not startle it or amaze it with itself, but with its subject.

I find I cannot exist without Poetry

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

“Great poetry needs no interpreter other than a responsive heart.”

“I read poetry to save time.”

"The real poetry and beauty in life comes from an intense relationship with reality in all its aspects. Realism is in fact the ideal we must aspire to, the highest point of human rationality."

"When you meet a swordsman, draw your sword: Do not recite poetry to one who is not a poet."

“Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.” 

“Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand.” 

“Poetry is the first and last of all knowledge - it is as immortal as the heart of man.” 

“to be incapable of a feeling of poetry, in my sense of the word, is to be without love of human nature” 

“Poetry is the image of man and nature” 

“For all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings...” 

“Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is the countenance of all science.” 

“Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is the countenance of all science.” 

“If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.” 

“If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry.” 

“She lives in the poetry she cannot write.” 

“Basil my dear boy puts everything that is charming in him into his work. The consequence is that he has nothing left for life but his prejudices his principles and his common sense. The only artists I have ever known who are personally delightful are bad artists. Good artists exist simply in what they make and consequently are perfectly uninteresting in what they are. A great poet a really great poet is the most unpoetical of all creatures. But inferior poets are absolutely fascinating. The worse their rhymes are the more picturesque they look. The mere fact of having published a book of second-rate sonnets makes a man quite irresistible. He lives the poetry that he cannot write. The others write the poetry that they dare not realize.” 

“Many people become bankrupt through having invested too heavily in the prose of life. To have ruined one's self over poetry is an honor.” 

“The bright dawn flooded the room, and swept the fantastic shadows into dusky corners, where they lay shuddering.” 

“Poets are not so scrupulous as you are. They know how useful passion is for publication. Nowadays a broken heart will run to many editions."

“Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit.”