Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads.
art gardens imagination poetry
Beauty is everlasting And dust is for a time
beauty
You're not free until you've been made captive by supreme belief
belief
The deepest feeling always shows itself in silence; not in silence, but restraint
feelings
Impatience is the mark of independence, not of bondage
impatience
The passion for setting people right is in itself an afflictive disease.
passion people rights
Poetry is all nouns and verbs
poetry
It is quite cruel that a poet cannot wander through his regions of enchantment without having a critic, forever, like the old man of the sea, upon his back
poetry poets
Psychology which explains everything explains nothing, and we are still in doubt
psychology
The Irish say your trouble is their trouble and your joy their joy? I wish I could believe it; I am troubled, I'm dissatisfied, I'm Irish
trouble
There never was a war that was not inward; I must fight till I have conquered in myself what causes war.
war
... imaginary gardens with real toads in them ...... if you demand on one hand,the raw material of poetry inall its rawness andthat which is on the other handgenuine, then you are interested in poetry.
Poetry...... a place for the genuine,Hands that can grasp, eyesthat can dilate, hair that can rise
They fought the enemy, we fight fat living and self-pity. Shine, o shine, unfalsifying sun, on this sick scene.
america soldiers war
Any writer overwhelmingly honest about pleasing himself is almost sure to please others.
writing
[Marianne Moore's definition of genuine poetry] -- Imaginary gardens with real toads in them.
You do not seem to realize that beauty is a liability ratherthanan asset - that in view of the fact that spirit creates formwe are justified in supposingthat you must have brains. For you, a symbol of theunit, stiff and sharp,conscious of surpassing by dint of native superiority andliking for everythingself-dependent, anything anambitious civilization might produce: for you, unaided, toattempt through sheerreserve, to confuse presumptions resulting fromobservation, is idle. You cannot make usthink you a delightful happen-so. But rose, if you arebrilliant, itis not because your petals are the without-which-nothingof pre-eminence. Would you not, minusthorns, be a what-is-this, a mereperculiarity? They are not proof against a worm, theelements, or mildew;but what about the predatory hand? What is brilliancewithout co-ordination? Guarding theinfinitesimal pieces of your mind, compelling audience tothe remark that it is better to be forgotten than to be re-membered too violently,your thorns are the best part of you.
marianne-moore poem roses-only
I am hard to disgust, but a pretentious poet can do it
disgust poet poets pretention pretentious pretentiousness
You are not male or female, but a plandeep-set within the heart of man.
androgeny female gender male male-and-female sex
If we can't be cordial to these creatures' fleece, I think that we deserve to freeze.
animal-cruelty animal-rights fur
My father used to say superior people never make long visits.
people
Superior people never make long visits.
Everything I have written is the result of reading or of interest in people.
people reading results
There never was a war that was not inward.
War is pillage versus resistance and if illusions of magnitude could be transmuted into ideals of magnanimity, peace might be realized.
peace war