William Jay Smith Quotes

I could no more define poetry than a terrier can define a rat.

All poetry has to do is to make a strong communication. All the poet has to do is listen. The poet is not an important fellow. There will also be another poet.

You don't make a poem with ideas, but with words.

It's not easy to define poetry.

The object of poetic activity is essentially language: whatever his beliefs and convictions, the poet is more concerned with words than with what these words designate.

Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.

Poetry, almost by definition, calls attention to its language and form.

If poetry alters the way in which the reader views the world, then it has had its desired effect.

Poetry is one of the destinies of speech... One would say that the poetic image, in its newness, opens a future to language.

My work should be seen as poetry.

When you write poetry you are always addressing the world somehow.

Poetry is not only a set of words which are chosen to relate to each other; it is something which goes much further than that to provide a glimpse of our vision of the world.

But poetry is my life. Poetry is what matters to me.

Poetry is, first and last, language - the rest is filler.

Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.

There is poetry even in prose, in all the great prose which is not merely utilitarian or didactic: there exist poets who write in prose or at least in more or less apparent prose; millions of poets write verses which have no connection with poetry.

In every culture, in every language, there is expressive play, expressive word play; there's language use to different purposes that we would call poetry.

People want poetry. They need poetry. They get it. They don't want fancy work.

A poem records emotions and moods that lie beyond normal language, that can only be patched together and hinted at metaphorically.

I consider a poem to be a kind of experiment where a number of elements are brought together under test conditions to see how they will interact to create meaning or relevance.

I'm a poet, and I spent my life in poetry.

Poetry is what gets lost in translation.

And if they haven't got poetry in them, there's nothing you can do that will produce it.

Poetry is the exquisite expression of exquisite expressions.

I do think that all of us think in poems.