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
When a poet speaks to his own people, the voices of all other poets of other languages who have influenced him are speaking also.
-T. S. Eliot
Each man carries within him the soul of a poet who died young.
-Antoine De Saint Exupéry
A poet should be so crafty with words that he is envied even for his pains.
-Criss Jami
At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.
-Plato
The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.
-Jean Cocteau
Each memorable verse of a true poet has two or three times the written content.
-Alfred De Musset
"Le Poète déchu"
Poets are shameless with their experiences: they exploit them.
-Friedrich Nietzsche
Poetry is the art of substantiating shadows.
-Edmund Burke
I don't create poetry, I create myself, for me my poems are a way to me.
-Edith Södergran
