Top 12 Great Poet Quotes

Great poetry is always written by somebody straining to go beyond what he can do.

Great poetry is always written by somebody straining to go beyond what he can do.

Stephen Spender

Poetry, Great Poet, Can Do

The New York Times, March 26, 1961.

You will find poetry nowhere unless you bring some of it with you.

Joseph Joubert

Poetry, Poetic, Great Poetry

A great poet is the most precious jewel of a nation.

Ludwig van Beethoven

Jewels, Poetic, Great Poet

Ludwig van Beethoven (1868). “Letters from the Collection of Ludwig Nohl: Also His Letters to the Archduke Rudolph, Cardinal-Archbishop of Olmütz, K.W. from the Collection of Ludwig, Ritter Von Köchel. Translated by Lady Wallace, with a Portrait and Facsimile”, p.88

Great poetry needs no interpreter other than a responsive heart.

Helen Keller

Heart, Needs, Great Poetry

Great Poets discover themselves. Little Poets have to be 'discovered' by somebody else.

Marie Corelli

Littles, Poet, Great Poet

Marie Corelli (1905). “Free Opinions, Freely Expressed on Certain Phases of Modern Social Life and Conduct”

Good poets borrow, great poets steal

T. S. Eliot

Stealing, Poet, Great Poet

All that is best in the great poets of all countries is not what is national in them, but what is universal.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Country, Poet, Great Poet

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1855). “The Works: Kavanagh. Outre-Mer”, p.69

There has never been a great poet who wasn't also a great reader of poetry.

Edward Hirsch

Poet, Reader, Great Poet

Great poetry must be admired, because it is great and because it is poetry, and so we admire it.

Witold Gombrowicz

Admire, Great Poetry

Witold Gombrowicz (2012). “Ferdydurke”, p.43, Yale University Press

... what is great poetry, after all, but the continuation of the human voice after death?

Erica Jong

Voice, After Death, Great Poetry

Hence poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are of the nature rather of universals, whereas those of history are singulars.

Aristotle

Nature, Great Poetry, Poetry Is

"Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation".

All great poetry is dipped in the dyes of the heart.

Edith Sitwell

Heart, Poetry, Great Poet

No, I'm not a great painter. Neither am I a great poet.

Claude Monet

Poet, Painter, Great Poet

Claude Monet (1999). “Monet by himself: paintings, drawings, pastels, letters”

One can be a great poet and be politically stupid.

Umberto Eco

Stupid, Poet, Great Poet

You can't be too influenced by a great poet. You simply have to live through it.

Kenneth Koch

Poet, Great Poet

I'm not a great poetry fan.

Rupert Everett

Fans, Great Poetry, Great Poet

"Rupert Everett: 'If I'd been straight? I'd be doing what Hugh Grant and Colin Firth do, I suppose" by Emma Brockes, www.theguardian.com. July 20, 2009.

After all, the commonplaces are the great poetic truths.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Truth, Poetic, Great Poet

Robert Louis Stevenson (2015). “The Complete Works of Robert Louis Stevenson: Novels, Short Stories, Poems, Plays, Memoirs, Travel Sketches, Letters and Essays (Illustrated Edition): The Entire Opus of Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer, containing Treasure Island, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Kidnapped, Catriona and A Child's Garden of Verses”, p.2184, e-artnow