Top 10 Quotes by Babette Deutsch

Poetry is important. No less than science, it seeks a hold upon reality, and the closeness of its approach is the test of its success.

Poetry is important. No less than science, it seeks a hold upon reality, and the closeness of its approach is the test of its success.

Babette Deutsch

Reality, Poetry, Important

Poetry is the fiery index to the genius of the age.

Babette Deutsch

Age, Genius, Poetry Is

The poet who speaks out of the deepest instincts of man will be heard. The poet who creates a myth beyond the power of man to realize is gagged at the peril of the group that binds him. He is the true revolutionary: he builds a new world.

Babette Deutsch

Men, Speaks Out, Poetry

Music proposes. Sound disposes.

Babette Deutsch

Music, Musician, Sound

Babette Deutsch (1969). “The collected poems”

How to sustain the miracle Of being, that like a muted bell, Or like some ocean-breathing shell, Quivers, intense and still?

Babette Deutsch

Ocean, Breathing, Miracle

Babette Deutsch (1963). “Collected Poems: 1919-1962”

There is no end to grief. Nor no end to poetry.

Babette Deutsch

Grief, Poetry, Ends

Babette Deutsch (1969). “The collected poems”

The poet, like the lover, is a person unable to reconcile what he knows with what he feels. His peculiarity is that he is under a certain compulsion to do so.

Babette Deutsch

Lovers, Poet, Certain

History Coming too close Is monstrous, like a doll That is alive and bigger than the child Who tries to hold it.

Babette Deutsch

Children, History, Trying

Babette Deutsch (1963). “Collected Poems: 1919-1962”

The difference between Pound and Whitman is not between the democrat who in deep distress could look hopefully toward the future and the fascist madly in love with the past. It is that between the woodsman and the woodcarver. It is that between the mystic harking back to his vision and the artist whose first allegiance is to his craft, and so to the reality it presents.

Babette Deutsch

Artist, Past, Reality

Babette Deutsch (1963). “Poetry in our time: a critical survey of poetry in the English-speaking world, 1900 to 1960”, Columbia University Press