No poet can know what his poem is going to be like until he has written it.
-W. H. Auden
"The Dyer's Hand"
Quotations
Poet
A poet should be so crafty with words that he is envied even for his pains.
-Criss Jami
A poet is not an apostle; he drives out devils only by the power of the devil.
-Søren Kierkegaard
"Fear And Trembling; Repetition"
At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.
-Plato
Poets don't draw. They unravel their handwriting and then tie it up again, but differently.
-Jean Cocteau
Always be a poet, even in prose.
-Charles Baudelaire
The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.
-Jean Cocteau
The poet is much more the one who inspires, than the one who is inspired.
-Paul Éluard
A poet is a man who puts up a ladder to a star and climbs it while playing a violin.
-Edmond De Goncourt
If you know what you are going to write when you're writing a poem, it's going to be average.
-Derek Walcott
