Explore the meaning of poetry and the motivation of poets with this special collection of evocative quotations...

"A poet is someone who is astonished by everything."
-- Anonymous

"Reality only reveals itself when it is illuminated by a ray of poetry."
-- Georges Brague

"The poet doesn't invent. He listens. "
--Jean Cocteau

" In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite."
-- Paul Dirac

" Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood."
-- T. S. Eliot

"The adventitious beauty of poetry may be felt in the greater delight with a verse given in a happy quotation than in the poem."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

" There is not a particle of life which does not bear poetry within it."
-- Gustave Flaubert

"A poem begins with a lump in the throat. "
--Robert Frost

" Poetry is the language in which man explores his own amazement."
-- Christopher Fry

" There's no money in poetry, but there's no poetry in money, either."
-- Robert Ranke Graves

" Poetry is to hold judgment on your soul."
-- Henrik Ibsen

" When power narrows the areas of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses."
-- John F. Kennedy

"Perhaps no person can be a poet, or can even enjoy poetry, without a certain unsoundness of mind."
--Thomas Babington Macaulay

"The poem is the point at which our strength gave out. "
--Richard Rosen

" Science is for those who learn; poetry, for those who know."
-- Joseph Roux

"Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world. "
--Percy Byshe Shelley

"Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket. "
--Charles Simic

"A poem is never finished, only abandoned. "
--Paul Valry

" Poetry is the music of the soul, and, above all, of great and feeling souls."
-- Voltaire

"Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge."
-- William Wordsworth

Danielle Hollister
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art8364.asp