Poetic Ability Quotes

There is this tendency to think that if you could only find the magic way, then you could become a poet. "Tell me how to become a poet. Tell me what to do." . . . What makes you a poet is a gift for language, an ability to see into the heart of things, and an ability to deal with important unconscious material. When all these things come together, you're a poet. But there isn't one little gimmick that makes you a poet. There isn't any formula for it.

Even so, sometimes I wish I did have a little bit more flair in my language.

Poets are born, not paid.

I was not born under a rhyming planet, nor I cannot woo to in festival terms.

... Who alive can say 'Thou art no Poet - mayst not tell thy dreams'? Since every man whose soul is not a clod Hath visions, and would speak, if he had loved, And been well nurtured in his mother tongue.

I definitely have a gift for language that is rhythmic and attractive to the ear, and I have interesting [verbal] imagery which I guess is a poetic touch.

Memory exercised in a particular way is a natural gift of poetic genius. The poet above all else, is a person who never forgets certain sense impressions which he has experienced and which he can relive again as though with all their original freshness.

I'm quite sure that most writers would sustain real poetry if they could, but it takes devotion and talent.

People are born with the knack to write poems and songs. I'm not a poet at all.

I may turn out an intellectual, but I'll never write anything but mediocre poetry.

A thousand years may elapse before there shall appear another man with a power of versification equal to that of Pope.

The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor.

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

At the age of four, you were an artist. And at seven, you were a poet.

Oh, I'm a pretty bad poet. This has been corroborated by others.

A man may be variously accomplished, and yet be a feeble poet.

Poets, I think, are born. You can't teach it. It's genetic - the circumstances of how you were raised... and there's probably some Irish in your blood lines.

He was a great poet" They lamented. No, he was not a great poet," said Theo, "He was a good poet, he could have been better. That's the real loss don't you see?

I think we will always have the impulse towards visual poetry with us, and I wouldn't agree with Bly that it's a bad thing. It depends on the ability of the individual poet to do it well, and to make a shape which is interesting enough to hold your attention.

For a poet he threw a very accurate milk bottle.

Bertolucci is extraordinary in his ability to perceive, he's a poet...he is very easy to work for.