<< Return to the Lesson Plans
-
Quotes about Poetry
from Marie Kane (bio)
www.mariekane.com

A Quotes about Poetry:

"Sometimes there's no one to listen to what you really might like to say at a certain moment. The paper always listens." ~ Naomi Shihab Nye

American poet Robert Frost had the right idea when he said, "I have never started a poem yet whose end I knew. Writing a poem is discovering."

And remember, "The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth." ~Jean Cocteau

"You can tear a poem apart to see what makes it tick.... You're back with the mystery of having been moved by words. The best craftsmanship always leaves holes and gaps... so that something that is not in the poem can creep, crawl, flash or thunder in. ~Dylan Thomas, Poetic Manifesto, 1961

"One will never again look at a birch tree, after the Robert Frost poem, in exactly the same way."
~Paul Muldoon

"You don't have to suffer to be a poet; adolescence is enough suffering for anyone."
~John Ciardi

"Poetry is like making a joke. If you get one word wrong at the end, you've lost the whole thing."
~W. S. Merwin