Poem

Famous quotes containing the word poem:

“Stir of time, the sequence
returning upon itself, branching
a new way. To suffer, pains, hope.
The attention
lives in it as a poem lives or a song
going under the skin of memory.”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)

“The true poem is not that which the public read. There is always a poem not printed on paper,... in the poet’s life. It is what he has become through his work. Not how is the idea expressed in stone, or on canvas or paper, is the question, but how far it has obtained form and expression in the life of the artist. His true work will not stand in any prince’s gallery.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

“I’ve never read a political poem that’s accomplished anything. Poetry makes things happen, but rarely what the poet wants.”
—Howard Nemerov (1920–1991)