"

A verbal art like poetry is reflective; it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become.

"

You shall love your crooked neighbour, with your crooked heart.

"

A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.

"

And each in the cell of himself is almost convinced of his freedom.

"

Poetry makes nothing happen.

"

In the prison of his daysTeach the free man how to praise

"

I will love you forever" swears the poet. I find this easy to swear too. "I will love you at 4:15 pm next Tuesday" - Is that still as easy?

"

When words lose their meaning, physical force takes over.

"

The element of craftsmanship in poetry is obscured by the fact that all men are taught to speak and most to read and write, while very few men are tau...more

"

Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry.

"

Say this city has ten million souls,Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes:Yet there’s no place for us, my dear, yet there’s no place f...more

"

In most poetic expressions of patriotism, it is impossible to distinguish what is one of the greatest human virtues from the worst human vice, collect...more

"

We would rather be ruined than changedWe would rather die in our dreadThan climb the cross of the momentAnd let our illusions die.

"

Some thirty inches from my noseThe frontier of my Person goes,And all the untilled air betweenIs private pagus or demesne.Stranger, unless with bedroo...more

"

The Ogre does what ogres can,Deeds quite impossible for Man,But one prize is beyond his reach:The Ogre cannot master speech.About a subjugated plain,A...more