Ralph Waldo Emerson on Poetry
1803–1882 United States
← All quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson
11 quotes
There is a property in the horizon which no man has but he whose eye can integrate all the parts, that is, the poet.
Nature (1836)
Poetry comes nearer to vital truth than history.
Nature (1836)
Poetry teaches the enormous force of a few words, and, in proportion to the inspiration, checks loquacity.
Parnassus (1874)
There are two classes of poets — the poets by education and practice, these we respect; and poets by nature, these we love.
Parnassus (1874)
Poetry must be new as foam, and as old as the rock.
Journals (1822)
For it is not metres, but a metre-making argument that makes a poem.
It does not need that a poem should be long. Every word was once a poem.
Poets should be law-givers; that is, the boldest lyric inspiration should not chide and insult, but should announce and lead the civil code, and the day's work.
The true poem is the poet's mind.
The finest poetry was first experience.
Sunshine cannot bleach the snow,
Nor time unmake what poets know.
Attributed